Kildare 1-14
Roscommon 1-11

A return of nine points from captain Gerry Keegan and a Ryan Casey goal were vital ingredients in Kildare's All-Ireland U21 HC 'B' final success over Roscommon in Semple Stadium this evening.

A star of Kildare's Christy Ring Cup success earlier in the summer, centre-forward Keegan treated those in attendance to an exhibition of point taking while Casey's 44th minute goal broke the Rossies' brave resistance.

The Noel McMahon/Paul Dermody managed outfit overcame the loss of midfielder Tommy Cribbin to a knee injury early on and were full value for their three-point victory.

Goal chances went abegging at either end during the early exchanges but the Lilywhites were quickest to settle and raced into a three point to nil lead by the 12 minute mark.

Joe Henry got Roscommon off the mark shortly after but his white flag failed to stem the tide and the Leinster outfit held a 0-6 to 0-1 advantage after 20 minutes.

To their credit, the Connacht lads stuck gamely to their task and outscored their opponents by 0-3 to 0-2 in the run-up to half-time to trail by just 0-4 to 0-8 at the break.

Three points at the start of the second half from Keegan put down a large deposit on Kildare's success and it was difficult to see any way back for the primrose and blues at that stage.

Casey's goal established a 1-12 to 0-8 lead for Kildare at the three quarter hour mark and two points in quick succession from Keegan confirmed their superiority.

Thomas Featherston netted an injury-time consolation goal for Roscommon.

Kildare - P McKenna; D Boyle, L McKenna, C Gordon; G Johnson, D Flaherty, K Murphy (0-1); S Gainey, T Cribben; N Kenny, G Keegan (0-9, 2f), S O'Flynn (0-1); E Dempsey (0-2), L Power, R Casey (1-1). Subs: C Egan for T Cribben, S Ryan for N Kenny.

Roscommon - N Fallon (0-1f); P Dolan, L Kilcline, W Boyle; D Fallon, C Dolan, C Coyle; J Brennan, C Duignan (0-1); P Kenny, T Featherston (1-1), H Rooney; R Fallon (0-4f), J Henry (0-1), R Kelly (0-1). Subs: S Naughton (0-1) for H Rooney, A Finnerty (0-1) for P Kenny, G Downey for J Brennan, C Mulry for R Kelly, S Kilcommins for J Henry.

Referee - O Elliott.

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