MEATH...3-11 OFFALY...1-7: Meath staged a tremendous second-half recovery to qualify for a Leinster under-21 semi-final when they made up interval arrears of five points to swamp Offaly by 3-11 to 1-7 in Tullamore.

Offaly scored their total in the first half and their interval lead of 1-7 to 0-5 reflected their superiority up to that point, with their goal scored by Jimmy Coughlan in the 16th minute.

The second half was marred by a free for all that resulted in Offaly's Mark Cole being dismissed, and yellow cards shown to his colleague Willie Crampton and Meath's Mark Ward. Later Offaly captain David Egan was dismissed on a straight red but by then Meath had the game in safe keeping as they led by 1-11 to 1-7.

Late goals from Joe Sheridan and Brian Farrell wrapped up Meath's semi-final place.

MEATH: R Nolan; J Geoghegan, C King, B O'Reilly; N McLoughlin, T O'Connor; J Melia; F Murphy, S Corrigan (0-1); M Burke, M Ward, T Farrelly; B Farrell (1-3), K Hamilton, J Sheridan (2-7). Subs: R Maloney for Hamilton, G McCloskey for Farrelly, D Moran for O'Reilly.

OFFALY: M Kavanagh; S Sullivan, S Casey, D Donoghue; C Gavin, C Kiely, M Cassidy; W Crampton, M Cole (0-1); R Guinan (0-1), D Egan (0-1), P Sullivan; T Deehan, N McNamee (0-2), J Coughlan (1-2). Subs: R Fox for P Sullivan, J Kelly for Guinan, N Spain for Gavin, N Morris for J Kelly.

Referee: T Quigley (Wexford).