All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship Semi-finals/Mayo 1-13; Kildare 1-7: After the awesome display of Armagh in the first semi-final this match fell flat as a pancake. Mayo played well only in flashes but it was enough to rule out even the possibility of a disappointing Kildare winning, and the Connacht champions duly joined their county seniors in reaching an All-Ireland final.

John Maughan, who manages both teams, was severely critical of the performance despite the county's latest success.

"I was very, very disappointed with the way we played. I thought we played very poorly. We had a chance to put them away early and didn't avail of it. That's no disrespect to Kildare. I'm just talking about our performance.

"Then at the death we had four or five chances that we didn't avail of and some of our smarter players turned the ball over very, very easily. The way we played wouldn't keep the ball kicked out to Armagh."

Whereas that wasn't an unreasonable reaction, Mayo did some things well. Their full-forward line were sharp and penetrative on the ball and between corner forwards Alan Costello, who was excellent, and Michael Conroy, singled out for praise by Maughan, scored 1-6 from play.

Another player mentioned by the manager was teenage centrefielder Barry Moran, who worked hard throughout and kicked a good point.

The defence was the most uneasy sector although again senior panellist Dermot Geraghty's display was praised by Maughan.

Kildare threatened to threaten in the early minutes after Munnelly had scored first for Mayo. A well-worked move was finished crisply by centre forward James Kavanagh who went on to play well for a 1-4 total. The Leinster champions could have had a second but a sliding shot by Michael Cocoman ran wide in the 10th minute.

Incrementally Mayo's forwards availed of their chances and overall they outscored their opponents by 1-7 to 0-3 after the goal. Mayo's goal was a great shot from Costello after Conroy had created an opening in the last minute of the first half.

By the break it was impossible to see the match going any other than Mayo's way. Whereas Kildare huffed and puffed to put up a score, the winners were always able to respond and for most of the half they were score for score.

Both sides went through the full complement of replacements and Mayo continued to create chances. As Maughan said, they had a number of goal chances, one of the better ones falling to replacement John Prenty, back after months of injury, but he snatched at the shot and it flew wide. Earlier Costello nearly had a second but hit the woodwork.

For the Kildare manager, Peter McConnon, it had been a frustrating afternoon. Injuries and a long period of inactivity hadn't helped his team's performance but he was realistic.

"We never got going." he said. "I thought we were very nervous in the first half and the game passed us by. I thought the goal might have settled us but we didn't take off. Maybe we were waiting for it to happen instead of making it happen."

He was also asked about the long lay-off that had seen Kildare inactive since winning Leinster in the spring.

"You saw Armagh in the first half," he answered. "It didn't seem to affect them. But our lads did look a little stuck to the ground. At half-time I felt that we hadn't done ourselves justice. Three or four of our better players didn't get on the ball early enough and struggled to get into the game. But 21 one of the 30 on the panel are underage again next year."

Next year for Kildare, next month for Mayo.

MAYO: 1. F Ruddy; 2. D Geraghty, 3. P Navin, 4. T Howley; 5. M Carey, 6. L O'Malley, 7. R Feeney; 8. R McNamara, 9. B Moran (0-1); 12. P Doherty, 11. N Lydon (0-1), 10. A Moran; 13. A Costello (1-3), 14. D Munnelly (0-4, three frees), 15. M Conroy (0-3). Subs: 18. P Lydon for Feeney (37 mins), 22. A Kilcoyne (0-1) for Doherty (45 mins), 30. C Barrett for N Lydon (52 mins), 23. P Casey for Munnelly (58 mins), 26. J Prenty for Conroy (59 mins),

KILDARE: 1. J Kindregan; 2. M Hogarty (0-1), 3. R McCabe, 4. A McLaughlin; 5. M Dowling, 6. M Foley, 7. J Lonergan; 8. W Heffernan, 9. D Flynn (0-1); 10. D McCormack (0-1), 11. J Kavanagh (1-4, two frees), 12. H Lynch; 13. R Glavin, 14. M Cocoman, 15. P O'Neill. Subs: 21. E McCormack for O'Neill (40 mins), 20. T O'Neill for Cocoman (42 mins), 18. S Darcy for Heffernan (42 mins), 17. B Flanagan for Dowling (51 mins), 23. M Treacy for Lynch (58 mins).

Referee: J White (Donegal).