Leinster Under-21 FC Quarter-finals: Meath edged their way into the semi-finals when coming from behind in Tullamore yesterday. Offaly flattered to deceive when a goal from a 40-metre free by corner forward Jimmy Coghlan shot them into a 1-2 to 0-1 lead in the opening six minutes despite playing against the wind.

Meath responded well thanks to the shooting of Cian Ward. With the home side adding just one further point before the break Meath reeled off the points that gave them an interval lead of 0-10 to 1-3.

Offaly halved their deficit within six minutes of the restart and with two minutes of normal time remaining they trailed by only a point. Full forward Brian Farrell fired over an insurance point for Meath in injury-time.

MEATH: M Brennan; B O'Reilly, J Melia, K Reilly; A Reynolds, C King, T Farrelly; M Ward, P Murray; G McCullagh, J Sheridan (0-1), M Burke; D Murtagh (0-1), B Farrell (0-3), C Ward (0-9) Sub: B Ennis for Burke.

OFFALY: D Lowry; S Sullivan, J Rafferty, S Casey; C Kiely (0-1), J Keane, N Grennan; J Quinn, P Bracken; T Fitzpatrick (0-1), N McNamee (0-2), T Coughlan; S Dooley, D Egan, J Coughlan (1-5). Subs: T Deehan for Dooley, D Donoghue for Rafferty, G O'Grady for T Coughlan, M Cassidy for Casey.

Referee: P Daly (Westmeath).