Dublin 1-12
Wexford 1-9

Dublin were forced to pull out all the stops before seeing off a battling Wexford side in last night's Cadbury Leinster U21FC opener at Bellefield, Enniscorthy.

The home side, who lifted their first Leinster U21 title last year, came from five points down at half-time to level the score at 1-8 apiece with 10 minutes remaining. But Dublin refused to panic and scored four points in the closing five minutes - including three from last year's star minor Ciaran Kilkenny - to qualify for a quarter-final meeting with Laois next week.

After Philip Ryan and Michael O'Regan had traded early frees, Graham Cullen edged the holders in front after eight minutes. Dublin hit back with scores from Kilkenny and Harry Dawson before O'Regan scored a cracking goal to leave Wexford 1-2 to 0-3 in front.

But Dublin responded to lead by 0-7 to 1-2 before they were awarded a 30th minute penalty which Ryan converted to give them a five-point cushion at the break.

Wexford dug deep after the restart and a run of scores from O'Regan, Declan Murphy and Barry O'Gorman had them level by the 50th minute. But Dublin finished the stronger - and also survived a late penalty appeal when John Leacy was felled - to progress.

Dublin - J B Carthy; J Smith, K O'Brien, M Concar; J Small (0-1), L Fletcher, J McCaffrey (0-1); E O'Conghaile (0-1), D Byrne; G Seaver, G Sweeney, M Schutte; C Kilkenny (0-6), H Dawson (0-1), P Ryan (1-2). Subs: A Carr for Smith, C Reddin for Byrne, P O'Higgins for O'Conghaile, E Keogh for Schutte, S George for Concar.

Wexford - B Redmond; W Devereux, D Gardiner, M Furlong; L Chin, J Leacy, S Sinnott; M O'Hanlon (0-1), A Cash; B O'Gorman (0-1), G Cullen (0-1), L Og McGovern; D Murphy (0-2), M O'Regan (1-4), K Rowe. Subs: D McDonald for Cullen, B Halpin for Rowe, C Kehoe for Sinnott.

Ref - F Kelly (Longford).

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