A positive start, which yielded 1-3 without reply in the opening 12 minutes, helped Dublin earn a narrow victory in this Leinster under-21 football championship game played at Cusack Park, Mullingar yesterday. Niall Crossan pounced for Dublin's opening goal after four minutes and full-forward Ray Cosgrove then slotted over three excellent points, two from frees.

Westmeath fought back to trail 0-5 to 1-3 at half-time and had a glorious chance of going in front within seconds of the resumption, but a penalty by Thomas Cleary hit a post and was eventually cleared. With less than 10 minutes left the sides were level. Then came the vital score of the match when Cosgrove punched a Paul Croft centre to the net.

DUBLIN: K Gorman; N McCaffrey, D Cahill, A Morrissey; P Matthews, J McGee, G O'Connell; I Clarke, D Maxwell; C Doyle, D Stynes, P Croft (0-1); P Murtagh (0-1), R Cosgrove (1-5), N Crossan (1-0). Subs: C Kilmurray for C Doyle; M Doran for N Crossan.

WESTMEATH: A Lennon; P Mullen, K Hickey, F Murray; M Bannon, A Canning, D Gavin; D O'Shaughnessy, O Kirby; L Gillivan, T Cleary (0-8), J Deehan (0-2); D Martin, C Keane (0-1), D Dolan. Subs: J Casey for L Gillivan; D O'Brien for M Bannon.

Referee: E Murtagh (Longford).