All-Ireland Under-20 champions Kildare begin with a win

Kildare recorded a 1-15 to 0-11 win over visitors Longford in their EirGrid Leinster Under-20 Football Championship opener at Manguard Park on Tuesday night.

Paddy Moran opened the scoring for Longford against the All-Ireland champions before Kildare found their range with four unanswered points.

Longford led by 0-06 to 0-05 in the 27th minute, but a strong finish from the hosts and scores from James Harris, Ryan Sinkey and Niall Dolan helped their side to a 0-08 to 0-06 interval lead.

Ross Harris beat Longford netminder Oisín McManus in an aerial contest in the second half and netted to ward off any prospect of an upset result.

Westmeath hosted Dublin in Kinnegad and found the Metropolitans in ruthless form.

It took Westmeath more than a quarter of an hour to register their first point, by which time Dublin had raced into a five-point lead, with Mark McNally, Clyde Burke, Luke O'Boyle and Paul Reynolds Hand all on target.

Dublin led by 1-09 to 0-02 at the interval, with Karl Flynn grabbing the Dublin goal and cruised through the second half to wrap up a 1-15 to 0-06 victory.

Elsewhere in the province, a brace of goals from Jamie O’Brien and a major from Killian Byrne helped Laois see off Carlow by 3-08 to 0-10 at the LOETB Centre of Excellence.

Louth defeated Offaly by 1-11 to 2-06 at Darvar and Wicklow recorded a 0-12 to 1-07 win over Wexford in Blessington.