Meath and Kildare seal Leinster MFC semi berths

Conn Brennan of Meath. Pic: Ben Brady/Inpho

Leinster MFC

Meath and Kildare scored five goals apiece in Electric Ireland Leinster MFC routs to grab the last two semi-final spots in the province.

Kildare were at their ease in Mullingar where they breezed to a 5-15 to 0-12 win over a talented Westmeath side that had previously beaten Dublin in the round-robin.

But while Meath were even bigger 5-16 to 0-9 winners against Offaly in Tullamore, that was a significantly closer game in reality.

In fact, with just 13 minutes to go, Trevor Giles' Meath led by just three points having been outscored in the third quarter by 0-6 to 0-1.

Paddy Burns reeled off four of those six Offaly points during the home side's purple patch, along with scores from substitute Joe Furey and Dara Waldron, to leave Meath only 0-11 to 0-8 ahead.

But the final quarter belonged to Meath who hit the throttle in dramatic fashion, slamming in five goals as well as a series of points, and reeling off 3-4 without response between the 48th and 57th minutes.

Liam O'Donoghue struck Meath's first goal before turning provider for a Conn Brennan major in the 54th minute.

Seconds later, Cormac Walsh fed substitute Dara Loughran for Meath's third goal before the same player added a point.

Tomas Proudfoot scored Meath's fourth goal in stoppage time and when Harris Moffat intercepted the subsequent kick-out and returned the ball to the net with interest, it was goal number five.

It's a powerful bounceback from a Meath side that lost two of its three group games and a sweet quarter-final win as last year's Royal County minors were knocked out at this same stage by Offaly.

Meath have also scored 11 goals in just two games having hit Wicklow for 6-23 in their preliminary quarter-final tie.

Kildare were comfortable throughout their big win over Westmeath in Mullingar with all five of their goals coming in the first half.

The contest was only seconds old when Cian Kehoe struck the first Kildare goal and Aidan Tobin made it 2-2 to 0-3 after just six minutes.

Liam Mescal, Jack Doran and Jamie Flood registered the other goals to leave Kildare virtually home and hosed at half time when they led by 5-8 to 0-4.

Páidí Ryan, Eoghan Lyons, Logan Tennyson and Jack Reilly added second half points for a talented Kildare side.

Mark Monaghan's two-pointer was one of the few first half highlights for Westmeath.

Monaghan, free-taker Stephen McWade, Darragh Murray, Conor Cleary and Finn Brennan added singles after the break for the hosts.

And there was an impressive Aaron Connaire two-pointer as Westmeath edged the second half scoring by a point to restore some pride.

Meath and Kildare have joined group winners Dublin and Louth in Leinster's last four.