O'BYRNE CUP SEMI-FINALS: Kildare 0-12 Westmeath 0-8:KILDARE booked their place in the final with a merited four-point win over Westmeath at Cusack Park, Mullingar, yesterday.

The much-changed Lilywhites hit four early points in the opening 11 minutes, courtesy of Fionn Dowling, from two placed balls, Alan Smith and full back Michael Foley.

Alan Giles finally found the target on 13 minutes to lift the home side’s hopes. Two Denis Glennon frees and a point from Peter Tormey helped them restore parity and Glennon added two more frees to leave the home side 0-6 to 0-4 ahead at the interval.

Kildare were level inside three minutes with wing back David Whyte finding the target, firstly from play and then from a free.

When Westmeath hit back with points from Denis Glennon (free) and Ger Egan, Kildare looked to be in trouble.

But that was to be Westmeath’s last score as Kieran McGeeney’s men upped the ante. Two Fionn Dowling points on the bounce, from a free and then from play pushed the Lilywhites two in front.

Dowling fired a penalty kick over the bar after goalkeeper Darren Quinn was adjudged to have fouled Eamon Callaghan.

It mattered little as substitute Emmet Bolton added the insurance point for Kildare late on.

KILDARE:S Connolly; H McGrillen, M Foley (0-1), C Fitzpatrick; E Callaghan, M Scanlon, D Whyte (0-3); T O'Neill, P O'Neill; T Moolick, A Smith (0-1), F Dowling (0-6, three frees, one pen); R Walsh, W Heffernan, M O'Sullivan. Subs:K Cribbin for O'Sullivan, E Bolton (0-1) for Walsh, B Flanagan for Scanlon, J Gately for Heffernan, H Lynch for Moolick.

WESTMEATH:D Quinn; R Doyle, R English, J Gaffey; M Curley, A Finnan, D Harte; B Murtagh, N Kilcoyne; A Giles (0-1), Denis Glennon (0-5, five frees), G Egan (0-1); P Tormey (0-1), David Glennon, S Quinn. Subs:D Dolan for Tormey, J Dolan for Curley, J Connellan for Giles, F Wilson for David Glennon, D Daly for Kilcoyne.

Referee:Brian O'Shea (Dublin).