On the other hand, we had cruised through the season, never leaving the comfort zone," O'Connor said.
O'Connor pointed to historical comebacks against challenging opposition as essential tests that built the resilience of his current squad.
"We felt that we were not as bad as people had made us out to be.
We were six points down against a fired-up Westmeath team last week 10 minutes into the second half and yet we fought back to win and we felt we did not get the credit for that.
It was a perfect dress rehearsal for today's game," O'Connor said.
The manager also marvelled at the exceptional vision and execution of modern players like David Clifford when performing under intense defensive pressure.
"I didn't think it was a great pass to him in the first place.
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I was just following the play and said to myself, 'Jesus, they are lining him up here now to nail him'," O'Connor said.
