A MORE untypical Meath performance it would be hard to imagine as Derry swamped them in the AllIreland under 21 final in Clones yesterday to win by a margin of 10 points.

For their part, Derry played with superb commitment and teamwork to win their first under 21 title since 1968, watched by a disappointing crowd of 5,697.

Beaten in all aspect's of the game, it was hard to understand that Meath, with four senior All Ireland medallists in their side, could be so disorganised.

Darren Fay's switch to midfield early in the second half brought some order to Meath's play, but it was too late to have any significant bearing on the outcome.

Meath's short passing game seemed unwise on a greasy surface. Derry were much more direct in their approach and from the throw in their corner forwards, Joe Cassidy and Michael Gribben, were kept busy chasing long raking passes to the wing from midfielders Enda Muldoon and Gary Doyle, who lorded it at midfield.

Cassidy emerged the chief plunderer of scores, with a total of five points, four of them from play, while Benny Murray, his partner on the right wing of the attack, scored three fine points from play.

At the break, Derry were five points to one ahead and the margin could have been much wider. For this Meath had goalkeeper Cormac O'Sullivan to thank for a double save after seven minutes when he blocked a shot from Cassidy at point blank range and then collected Gribben's shot from the rebound.

Derry were leading with four points to no score after 24 minutes with Cassidy, Gribben (two) and Muldoon the scorers. Farrelly got Meaths lone point after 26 minutes, but Murray restored thee fourpoint advantage just before the break.

Meath's slight improvement in the second half was well controlled by Derry. All six defenders were in top form with David O'Neill outstanding at full back. He totally outplayed Barry Callaghan, who had been out of action since Meath's All Ireland victory.

The Derry captain, John McBride, said: "We all clicked at the right time. Joe Cassidy was fabulous but in my book Bernie Murray was the outstanding player on the field and my man of the match. This victory is great for Derry football and I believe that we can now go about building a senior team for the future. This was a great day for us."

And indeed it was. Derry put that extra polish on their victory just before the call of time when a Meath defender lost control of the ball about 10 yards from his own goal and it slipped free for Adrian McGuckin to calmly sidefoot to the net.