Westmeath battle past Kildare to reach Leinster football final

An unanswered 1-6 in the second half means Westmeath have qualified for consecutive Leinster football finals for the first time in their history after a 1-12 to 1-11 win over Kildare.

James Dolan was the match-winner for Tom Cribbin's side in their first-round victory over Offaly, and it was his goal in the 48th minute that proved crucial to last year's losing finalists.

Before that Kildare had surged six points clear when Tommy Moolick goaled five minutes after the restart, but Dolan's goal and couple of Ray Connellan points fired Westmeath to just their second championship win over Kildare - the last was 56 years ago.

Before the thousands of Dublin and Meath supporters descended on Croke Park, the first Leinster semi-final started in an eerie, sparsely populated stadium. And those that arrived early were not treated to the finest of opening halves of football either.

Kildare recovered from a slow start and kicked five of the last six points of the opening half to lead by 0-7 to 0-6 at the interval, but it was their tendency to concede soft frees at the other end that had seen Westmeath off to the brighter start.

Westmeath centre-forward Paul Sharry got the scoring started with a sweet score off his left in the third minute, and that lead was doubled from a John Heslin free in the eighth minute.

With Kieran Martin off the pitch receiving treatment to his broken nose Kildare worked their way into the game when Neil Flynn drilled over a long range free, and Fergal Conway pointed on the run to level scores by the 12th minute.

Moments of positive Kildare defending was offset by the concession of soft frees and Moolick was guilty of the foul that allowed Heslin kick his third free, which was quickly followed by a 45 from Sharry.

But that 0-5 to 0-2 lead was quickly turned around as Kildare kicked five points from play before the interval, the pick of them from the returning Niall Kelly after his dummy shot earned him the space to shoot.

And on the resumption Kildare carried that good form into the second period and after Flynn kicked a free to stretch the lead to two points, Moolick was on hand to palm the ball to the net three minutes later when Flynn's fisted effort came back off the crossbar.

Westmeath looked to be a beaten side at that point, but inspired by Connellan - on his return from an Australian Rules trial at St Kilda - they replied with 1-3 in five minutes, as Dolan levelled matters with his 48th minute goal.

And the Westmeath run didn't stop with that goal as a free form Heslin and Martin's point put them two up and they easily held on in the closing stages to win.

Westmeath: D Quinn; J Gonoud, F Boyle, K Daly; J Dolan (1-0), A Stone, F Boyle; G Egan (c), D Corroon; R Connellan (0-2), P Sharry (0-3, 1'45), D Lynch; J Connellan, J Heslin (0-4, 4f), K Martin (0-2).

Subs: J Egan for Martin (8-16 blood), C McCormack (0-1) for Stone (47), J Egan for J Connellan (57), R Foley for R Connellan (63), R Gorman for Maguire (74 BC).

Kildare: M Donnellan; P Kelly, D Hyland, O Lyons; J Byrne (0-1), E Doyle (c), C O'Donoghue; T Moolick (1-0), F Conway (0-1); M O'Flaherty, E O'Flaherty (0-1), A Tyrrell (0-1); N Kelly (0-1), N Flynn (0-4, 4f), E Bolton (0-2).

Subs: C McNally for Tyrrell (45), K Murnaghan for Bolton (50), C Healy for Kelly (54 BC), C Fitzpatrick for O'Donoghue (57), E Callaghan for E O'Flaherty (67), R Houlihan for Byrne (67).

Referee: Derek O'Mahoney (Tipperary).