Westmeath 1-6
Kildare 0-6

A wasteful Westmeath were forced to sweat it out before setting up a Cadbury Leinster U21FC quarter-final date with neighbours Meath at the expense of Kildare in Mullingar on Saturday.

Brendan Hackett's side should have been out of sight at half-time, but almost paid the price for missing at least four guilt-edged goalscoring opportunity when Kildare sub Danny Egan rattled the crossbar in the dying moments. A goal at that stage would have levelled the game, but the home side survived.

The Lilywhites' misery was compounded when midfielder Peter Kelly was sent off on a second yellow card in the 59th minute, while Egan received a straight red card in time added on.

Westmeath dominated the first half and led by 1-5 to 0-3 at the break thanks to three points from full forward Callum McCormack and a 27th minute goal from Ballinagore's James Durkan.

But they managed only one point in the second half through midfielder John Heslin as Alan Barry's Kildare clawed their way back into with scores from Seamus Hanafin, Danny O'Keeffe and Daroch Mulhall.

Westmeath - D Quinn; B Moran, K Maguire, R Doyle; G Egan, K Martin, M McCallon; D Corroon, J Heslin (0-1); J Durkan (1-0), J Egan, C Lynam (0-1, a free), I Coffey (0-1), C McCormack (0-3), T McDaniel. Subs: P Sharry for McDaniel (39 mins), K Sheridan for Durkan, (49), T McDaniel for Coffey, (57).

Kildare - R Eyres; J Roche, B Kinahan, R McGuire; D Coogan, A Higgins, P Warren; P Kelly, S Bergin; S Campbell, K Cribbin (0-2, one free), N Scanlon; D Mulhall (0-2, one free), C McNally, C Reynolds. Subs: D Duggan for Kinahan |(13 mins), D O'Keeffe (0-1) for Bergin (ht), S Hanafin (0-1) for McGuire (ht), G Duffy for Scanlon (42 mins), D Egan for Reynolds (55 mins).

Ref: P Finnegan (Louth) Tweet

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