Offaly 1-9
Meath 0-9

Offaly overcame the first half dismissal of corner forward Paul McPadden to knock Meath out of the Cadbury Leinster U21FC at Gracefield last night.

The signs appeared ominous for Pascal Kelleghan's side when his fellow Rhode clubman was sent off by referee Damien Maher late in the first half following an off-the-ball incident. But after an Anton Sullivan free ensured them of parity at the break, 0-5 each, the 14 men came out with all guns blazing for the second half and scored an unanswered 1-3 to leave Liam Harnan's Meath side shell-shocked.

A brace of Bernard Allen points followed by the game's only goal from impressive substitute Mark Young put the Faithful on the road to victory. Shane Gillespie tried to get Meath back into it, but the home side held firm and the losers' misery was compounded by the sending off of Darragh Maguire in stoppage-time.

Offaly - G Shields; D Hanlon, E Rigney, J Kavanagh; S Hannon, J Ledwith (0-1), J McPadden; M Brazil, D Kelly; D Hogan, A Sullivan (0-3), G Guilfoyle; T Spain, B Allen (0-3), P McPadden. Subs - M Young (1-2) for Spain, S Cullen for Allen.

Meath - C McHugh; C McConnell, B Dillon, J Quigley; P Fox (0-1), C Lenehan, D Maguire; B Menton, S Tobin (0-1); D Larkin, M O'Sullivan, D Carroll (0-2); S Gillespie (0-4), N Murphy, P McKeever. Subs - A Forde (0-1) for Murphy, C Devereux for Larkin, D Keoghan for Quigley, F Toolin for Tobin.

Ref - D Maher (Westmeath).

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