Dublin 3-13 Longford 1-6:Under-21 Football Championship Leinster final: Sometimes spirit and determination will only last so long against a cavalry charge. For Longford that meant trying to resist the onslaught of Dublin's finest under-21 football talent, and they survived about 15 minutes before, in the words of Dublin manager Tommy Lyons, "they were torn asunder".

There was some consolation for Longford when the curtain came down on yesterday's Leinster final in Mullingar. They lost by 13 points, but it could have been far more. Dublin's superiority all over the field was so frightening that towards the end there was a danger of total annihilation.

Longford's brave start at least spared the game that debacle.

Still, after waiting 18 years to win back their Leinster title, Dublin have now put two back-to-back - and few will ever come more convincingly or easier than this. Once they absorbed the early hits that the clearly fired-up Longford team had to offer there was enough breathing space for practically every Dublin player to sparkle, and in most cases they did.

Well before the throw-in, however, Longford knew they were up against it. Only two seniors started - David Barden and Dermot Brady - as opposed to Dublin's emerging half-dozen.

And while their semi-final win over Meath did reveal great self-belief, it's been 21 years since their last Leinster final in the grade - and the county is still waiting to actually win one.

For the opening 10 minutes they tried resolutely to contain Dublin's pending domination, and by tackling hard and defending in numbers they briefly succeeded.

So the game opened haphazardly and Dublin gradually broke into a three-point lead before Donal McKeon put over Longford's first point from a free just before the quarter-hour mark.

Yet while Longford weren't making it easy on Dublin, nor were they making it easy on themselves. McKeon was mostly firing his frees like broken arrows and too much of their hard-earned possession was squandered. Bit by bit Dublin started giving them lessons in how to execute scoring chances, and as the first half wound down they were coming thick and fast.

The crowd of 2,824 was evenly split between both sides, but only the Longford supporters were sighing in frustration. Everything that came their way came to nothing, whereas most things that came Dublin's way were put away.

On 20 minutes Dublin first established the clear daylight that they would enjoy until the end. Declan O'Mahoney had taken total control at midfield and inevitably, one of his long balls that drifted into the Longford area ended up in the net. John Noonan had jumped up with goalkeeper David Collum, but it was Declan Lally who slipped the ball into the open goal.

Now leading 1-4 to 0-1, Dublin relaxed a little, and starting playing to their true potential. Team captain Alan Brogan got his name on the scoreboard shortly afterwards, and little by little the cream was rising to the top.

In defence, too, Dublin were in a different class. At times Thomas Nolan and Barden were combining well but whenever they got close to goal the Dublin defenders were around them like LA cops called to a highway robbery.

Paul Griffin was the main man, with Mark Fitzpatrick always in control at full back. And Bryan Cullen again established himself as the rock of things at centre back. So the best Longford could manage before the break was a free from Michael Kelly, their sole member of last year's Leinster winning minor team, and then a 45-metre free from Trevor Lynch.

What happened in the first 10 minutes of the second half killed the game of all competitiveness. Dublin put over four points in succession, conceded one free, and then put over 1-1 - the goal coming from Noonan. With the score at 2-10 to 0-4 Longford were glancing at the side exits.

"We said at half time that we didn't want to give them any sort of platform in the second half," said Lyons afterwards. "And that first 10-minute spell for us at the start of the second half just killed off the game. And I thought we were fantastic.

"But some of the hitting in the first half was incredible. We stuck to our game plan and worked on getting the ball to our two men up front and once we got the space I think we tore them asunder.

"The fact is most of this team have been playing a lot of football at a very high level for the last few years now. More and more are starting to come through, and that can only be good for Dublin football."

For the remaining 20 minutes Dublin played at their own pace. Noonan added a second goal and could well have had three, while Conal Keaney and Liam Óg Ó hEineachain ran at will at the Longford goal. Pádraig Brennan also came to the fore at midfield.

David Hynes stole a goal back for Longford but when McKeon missed a penalty his day of sorrow was complete.

"I was very happy with the performances out there," added Lyons. "I thought Paul Griffin did a wonderful job on David Barden, and some of the fielding of Declan O'Mahoney was just fantastic. But we set out at the start of the year to retain both our titles, and now we've got one in the bag.

"The only downside is the six-month break before the semi-final.

"But we won't break the team up like we did last year. We'll try to get together at least once a week and hopefully that can help keep the form together."

DUBLIN: P Copeland; N Kane, M Fitzpatrick, P Griffin; N Cooper, B Cullen (0-2, both frees), C Prenderville; P Brennan, D O'Mahoney (0-3, one free); C Keaney (0-2), L Óg Ó hEineachain (0-2), D Lally (1-0); A Brogan (0-1), G Cullen (0-1), J Noonan (2-2). Subs: M Lyons for G Cullen, D Murray for Cooper (both 54 mins), G Smith for Keaney (55 mins), K Devine for Brennan (58 mins), H McEnerney for Ó hEineachain (60 mins).

LONGFORD: D Collum; J McNally, K Connaughton, D Brady; T Dooner, T Lynch (0-2, one 45, one free), M Kelly (0-1, a free); E Kelleher, D Smyth; G Kelly, T Nolan, T Glendenning; D McKeon (0-3, all frees), D Barden, D Hynes (1-0). Subs: N Donlon for Glendenning (34 mins), J Kiernan for Nolan (39 mins), W Murray for Kelleher (45 mins), I Shannon for Smyth, P Brady for Dooner (both 59 mins).

Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).