Dublin 2-13

Galway 2-7

Dublin won the last-ever All-Ireland U21 football final after leading Galway from start to finish at a blustery O'Connor Park this evening.

Holding a slender 0-5 to 0-4 lead at the interval, the Dubs upped the ante in the second half when goals from Con O'Callaghan and Aaron Byrne propelled them to their fourth All-Ireland success in the grade since 2010 and fifth in all. Despite masterminding his third All-Ireland success (two at U21 and one at minor level), Dessie Farrell insisted afterwards that he had no ambitions to eventually succeed Jim Gavin as Dublin senior manager.

After a cagey opening period, the game really opened up in the second half as Dublin stormed into an eight-point lead, only for Galway to halve the deficit thanks to a goal from wing back Cillian McDaid. However, Byrne's strike with four minutes of normal time remaining proved decisive and not even an injury-time major from Galway sub Colm Brennan could take from the Dublin celebrations.

With a swirling wind blowing, both teams were slow to settle. Scores from Glenn O'Reilly and O'Callaghan gave the winners an early 0-2 to 0-0 lead before captain Michael Daly opened Galway's account in the seventh minute. However, a Colm Basquel brace had Dublin 0-4 to 0-1 up after 18 minutes.

Galway, who ran amok against a highly-fancied Kerry outfit in the first half of their semi-final, were struggling for scores, but eventually reduced the arrears through points from Eoin Finnerty and McDaid before midfielder Peter Cooke traded scores with O'Reilly before the break.

Dublin resumed with an unanswered 1-5 to open up a 1-10 to 0-5 lead. O'Callaghan's fisted goal had them in control before McDaid netted at the other end with 10 minutes to go and Kieran Molloy added a point to leave just four points in it, 1-10 to 1-6.

But the Tribesmen's comeback hopes were all but ended when Byrne grabbed Dublin's second goal. Brennan pulled back a scrappy goal in stoppage-time before O'Callaghan opted for a point from a penalty with the last kick of a frenetic encounter.

Dublin - E Comerford; D Byrne, S McMahon, D Monaghan; C O'Shea, E Murchan, C Murphy; A Foley, B Howard (0-1); D O'Brien (0-2), G O'Reilly (0-3), A Byrne (1-0); C Basquel (0-2), C O'Callaghan (1-3, 1-0pen, 0-2f), T Fox. Subs: D Gavin (0-1) for A Foley, D Spillane for T Fox, C Sallier for G O'Reilly, A McGowan for S McMahon, P Small for C Basquel, S Smith (0-1) for A Byrne.

Galway - R O Beolain; L Kelly, S A O Ceallaigh, R Greene; K Molloy (0-1), D McHugh, C McDaid (1-1); P Cooke (0-1), C D'Arcy; S Kelly, M Daly (0-1), P Mannion (0-1); R Finnerty, E Finnerty (0-1), D Conneely. Subs: C Brady (0-1) for R Finnerty, C Brennan (1-0) for C D'Arcy, M Boyle for D Conneely, E Lee for S Kelly, A O Laoi for P Mannion, P O Curraoin for K Molloy.

Referee - C Branagan.

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