Dublin were singing in the rain at O'Moore Park as they beat Offaly by 2-14 to 0-8 in the last-ever Leinster U21 football final.

Having claimed their 14^th provincial crown at this level - and fourth in succession - the winners can now look forward to an All-Ireland semi-final date with the Ulster champions on Saturday, April 15^th. The Ulster championship remains a long way from being resolved, however, as both of tonight's semi-finals were postponed and re-fixed for next Wednesday night.

Tom Fox (1-2) and substitute Stephen Smith netted for Dublin tonight, while Aaron Byrne, Con O'Callaghan and Glenn O'Reilly - a late addition to the starting XV - were others to catch the eye for the winners, who took control with an unanswered run of 1-4 between the 28th and 39th minutes.

At the end of a keenly-contested opening period, the defending champions - having played against the breeze - were in the boss seat with a double-points lead, 0-10 to 0-5. Offaly had given as good as they got, with corner forward Shane Tierney particularly impressive, but Dublin were much sharper, cuter and more decisive.

The Dubs led by the odd point from five after an entertaining opening eight minutes. Fox and Tierney traded the first two points and it could have been worse for the underdogs had the winners not had a Dan O'Brien goal disallowed in between. O'Brien planted his shot low into the bottom left corner of the net but the referee had spotted an illegal handpass in the build-up.

O'Reilly and Chris Sallier pointed for the holders before Ronan McEvoy scorched a powerful shot over the bar to reduce the arrears to the minimum. Three Byrne points - the third from a '45' - had four between the teams at the midway stage in the opening period - and Fox replied to an exceptional Tierney effort as Dessie Farrell's side maintained their four-point cushion, 0-7 to 0-3.

When the superb Tierney lofted over his third point, Man of the Match Byrne replied with his fourth to make it double scores. Midfielder Jordan Hayes swung over a beautiful left-footed score for the midlanders two minutes from the break but points from Eoin Murchan and the influential dual ace O'Callaghan (free) ensured the red-hot favourites of a five-point interval advantage.

After slotting the first score of the second half from a free, O'Callaghan turned provider when he delivered the pass to centre forward Fox, who blasted an unstoppable shot to the Offaly net in the 34^th minute - 1-11 to 0-5 and game over!

O'Reilly stretched the gap to ten and the gallant losers replied with a run of frees from Tierney and Hayes (2) to leave seven points between the teams with twelve minutes left. O'Callaghan got his first from play six minutes later and fired over another quality score in the 58^th minute before Smith completed the scoring with a second Dubs goal on the stroke of full time.

After the final whistle, victorious joint-captains full forward O'Callaghan and full back Cillian O'Shea collected the Seamus Flood Cup as Dublin became the first - and last - team to win four Leinster U21 football titles in a row.

Dublin - E Comerford; D Monaghan, C O'Shea, D Byrne; E Murchan (0-1), S McMahon, C Murphy; A Foley, B Howard; T Fox (1-2), D O'Brien, A Byrne (0-4, 1'45); C Sallier (0-1), C O'Callaghan (0-4, 2f), G O'Reilly (0-2). Subs: S Smith (1-0) for C Sallier, S Bugler for D O'Brien, D Gavin for T Fox, A Elliot for G O'Reilly, A McGowan for D Monaghan.

Offaly - B Rohan; C Horan, D Dempsey, C Doyle; A Mahon, PJ Daly, J Egan; J Lalor, J Hayes (0-3, 2f); C Farrell, R McNamee, J Walsh; R McEvoy (0-1), P Dunican, S Tierney (0-4, 1f). Subs: K Higgins for PJ Daly, J Clancy for P Dunican, C Stewart for J Egan.

Referee - D Hickey.

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