Westmeath 4-17
Kildare 1-16

Reigning champions Kildare lost their Leinster Under-21 Hurling Championship title in Cusack Park, Mullingar on Sunday when they went down to four goal Westmeath.
And the young Lilywhites lost it to a Lake county side playing well within itself -who finish 4-17 to 1-16 ahead on a warm, bright afternoon.
What might have been achieved if the manager Noel McMahon had been appointed three months ago instead of three weeks one can only wonder.
Playing with a stiff breeze, they started well and led 0-8 to 0-4 after 23 minutes. However, the hosts broke Kildare’s grip on the exchanges with two goals in rapid succession and by the interval it was they who led 2-7 to 0-11.
The Lakelanders never really let McMahon’s Lilywhites back into it after that and Eoin Price’s penalty goal in the 42nd minute crystalised their fate.
A skilfully taken goal from Leixlip’s Aidan Ryan four minutes later, raised a cheer among the dozen or so Kildare supporters, but it alone was never going to be enough to revive Kildare’s chances.
And Noel Conraty’s goal on the hour put the padlock on Kildare’s chances of truly getting back into this game.
It was not that Kildare failed to show any degree of skill, far from it, there were some fine displays in the all-white shirt.
Rather, this Kildare team did not play with cohesion or with the passion of a side defending a crown.
At times over the hour Westmeath showed brief lapses in concentration and a sharper unit might have taken advantage of that.
There were some wonderful scores from both sides, but the majority of them were from Westmeath especially Kilcoyne who started at full-forward and went to centre-forward.
It seemed in the second half as if the hosts were doing just enough to see off the Lilywhites and that they were capable of a lot more.
Whether that was the case or not, the Kildare men were not played off the field and that has to leave you wondering.

WESTMEATH: J. Greville, A. Savage, A. Price, M., Keegan, C. Curley, P. Gilsenan, S. Egan, E. Price (1-0 pen; 0-1f;’65), R. Jackson (0-1), N. Conaty (1-1), L. Folan (1-2), C. Flanagan, A. Dermody (0-2), N. Kilcoyne (1-5), P. Fitzsimons. Subs: A. Giles for Keegan (inj-23 mins); M. Savage for Fitzsimons (48 mins); E. Gallagher for Conaty (60 mins).
KILDARE: S. Whelan, C. Chan, N. O’Muineachain, T. Finnerty, J. O’Malley (0-2), P. Fitzgerald (0-4, 3fs), J. Houlihan, P. Moloney (0-1), P. Quigley (0-1), D. Heffernan (0-2), A. Ryan (1-2), S. White (0-1), P. Ward (0-1), E. Fitzpatrick (0-1), F. Byrne. Subs: P. Keegan for White (46 mins); I. Baker for Moloney (55 mins);
Referee: F. Smyth (Meath).