Football

Leinster SFC: Dublin and Kildare into final after tense last-four encounters

Ciarán Kilkenny's shooting was key to Dublin's progress into the Leinster SFC final yesterday Picture by Séamus Loughran
Ciarán Kilkenny's shooting was key to Dublin's progress into the Leinster SFC final yesterday Picture by Séamus Loughran Ciarán Kilkenny's shooting was key to Dublin's progress into the Leinster SFC final yesterday Picture by Séamus Loughran

Leinster SFC semi-finals: Dublin 2-16 Meath 1-13; Kildare 2-14 Westmeath 0-18

DUBLIN will meet Kildare in the Leinster final after two cracking last four encounters at Headquarters yesterday.

Although ultimately unsuccessful, Meath pushed Dublin all the way. Another one-sided Leinster Championship rout looked on the cards at half-time as goals from Cormac Costello and Con O'Callaghan helped the Dubs into an 11-point lead.

But the Royals were a team transformed on the restart, hitting 1-4 without reply to cut Dublin's lead to three. First, Matthew Costello's 36th minute goal injected their challenge with hope and they then delivered the next four points of the game through Joey Wallace (two) and Jordan Morris (two) as the deficit was reduced to 2-11 to 1-10. Dublin eventually ended a 14 minute search for a score when Ciarán Kilkenny raised a white flag.

A 45 from James McEntee and a Thomas O'Reilly free had the margin down to 2-13 and 1-13 as the game entered injury-time but points from Brian Fenton, Cormac Costello and Kilkenny ultimately steadied the Dublin ship.

In the first semi-final, Kildare came out on the right side of a thrilling clash against Westmeath.

The returning Daniel Flynn was the star of the show for the Lilywhites as they reached their first Leinster final since 2017. The likes of John Heslin, Ger Egan, Lorcan Dolan and Ronan Daly were on form for Westmeath as they gave Kildare more than a game early on – by half-time Heslin had 0-5 to his name.

The game was finely poised at 0-11 apiece when Daniel Flynn set Jimmy Hyland up for Kildare’s first goal before storming through the Westmeath defence for his own major just three minutes later. Westmeath outscored their opponents from there on in but a host of poor wides was ultimately their downfall.

Dublin and Kildare will meet in the final at Croke Park on Sunday, August 1.