Meath showed a greater fitness level in extra time to advance to the Cadbury's Leinster under-21 football semi-final after this four point win over Kildare at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday March 4th. Meath 3-13 Kildare 1-15 The Lilywhites started brightly and raced into a 1-9 to 1-2 lead by the 20th minutes. Midfielder Tomas O'Connor scored the visitors goal in the 10th minute to cancel out David Bray's goal three minutes earlier. Meath were still trailing ten minutes into the second half before full forward netted their second goal of the afternoon after good work by Rory Maguire and a further two points from frees by the impressive Cian Ward left the Royals in front. Kildare edged back in front with points from Michael Conway and Padraig O'Neill but substitute Ciaran Kelly got the score of the match when he pointed from an acute angle to send the game into extra time. Meath trailed by two after the early exchanges of the first period of extra time, before Meath stepped up a gear to fire 1-5 to Kildare's two points with Ward getting the goal and another senior star Kevin Reilly scoring two points from play. MEATH - M Aherne; C O'Connor, R Hatton, P Howard; S Sheppard, C McGuinness, T Skelly; B Meade, K Reilly 0-2; D Bray 1-2, R Maguire, A Nestor; C O'Dwyer, J Queeney 1-0, C Ward 1-7 (6f). Subs: S O'Rourke for Bray (44), C Kelly 0-2 for O'Dwyer (56), G Gallagher for Meade (66), N McMahon for Skelly (87), K Mulvaney for Nestor (90). KILDARE - J Kindregan; I Lonergan, H McGrillen, D McInerney; J Brown, G White, D Brennan; T O'Connor 1-0, R Kelly; B Bell, M Conway (2f) 0-3, A Smith 0-2; M O'Sullivan 0-3, P O'Neill 0-6 (4f), T Archbold. Subs: J Phillips for Kelly (41), J Cocoman 0-1 for Bell (47), D McEvoy for Brown (51), M Kenny for Brennan (67), R Kelly for O'Connor (70). REF - E Kinsella (Laois). Tweet

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