Kildare 3-9 Meath 1-11:Kildare had a comfortable win in the O'Byrne Shield at Newbridge - never losing the lead after Derek McCormack opened the scoring in the first minute.

A Mark Scanlon goal shortly afterwards put them into a commanding lead and, when Murt Donnelly added a second goal, Meath were left with too much to do. Kildare's third goal came from Padraig O'Neill and they led 3-6 to 0-8 at half-time.

Meath rallied after the break and Ger Robinson had the ball in the net within four minutes, but John Doyle replied for Kildare.

Kildare responded almost every time Meath scored and the visitors never threatened the Lilywhites' superiority.

KILDARE: E Murphy; T Dowling, D Lyons, A McLoughlin; M Scanlon (1-0), M Hogarty, E Bolton (0-1); D Earley, W Heffernan; D McCormack (0-1), J Doyle (0-3), M Donnelly (1-0); P O'Neill (1-2), T O'Connor (0-1), T Archbold (0-1). Subs: K Donnelly for McCormack; K Brennan for Heffernan; D Jordan for Donnelly; M Fitzharris for Doyle.

MEATH - D Gallagher; C McLoughlin, D Fay, D Kealy; N McLoughlin (0-1), E Harrington, S MacGabhann; B Lynch, C McCarthy (0-1); P Curran (0-2), B Meade, R Farrelly (0-2); G Robinson (1-2, 0-2 from frees), O Murphy (0-2), D White. Subs: J Donoghue for MacGabhann; M Ward for Lynch; G Rogers for McCarthy; S Bray (0-1) for White; J Davis for Ward.

Referee: G McCormack (Dublin).