Meath ease clear of Louth in closing stages

Meath delivered a good final quarter to win the Leinster SFC tussle today at Parnell Park by 0-27 to 3-9 against Louth and progress to the last four where they will play Kildare on Saturday week at O'Connor Park, Tullamore.

Graham Reilly delievred a man-of-the-match performance and claimed a total of seven points for the Royal County who were ahead by 0-10 to 1-6 at the interval.

Louth's opening goal was a penalty from Jim McEneaney and there was also an opportunist Louth goal in the second-half from Ronan Holcroft.

With Meath threatening to ease away subsequently, Conall McKeever's third goal for Louth got the Wee County back into contention trailing by 3-9 to 0-20.

However, Colin Kelly's men didn't manage another score for the remainder as Meath upped the tempo and won with plenty to spare although manager Andy McEntee will have plenty of areas to target for improvement.

There was a great debut for Ronan Jones and also for Thomas Reilly of Wolfe Tones who scored two crucial points after Louth had scored that third goal

Meath - Paddy O’Rourke (Skryne); Mickey Burke (Longwood), Conor McGill (Ratoath), Donnacha Tobin (Blackhall Gaels); Padraic Harnan (Moynalvey), Donal Keogan (Rathkenny), Shane McEntee (Dunboyne); Bryan Menton (Donaghmore/Ashbourne), Ronan Jones (Dunboyne 0-1); James Toher (Trim 0-5), Cillian O’Sullivan (Moynalvey 0-1), Eamon Wallace (Ratoath); Graham Reilly (St Colmcille's 0-7), Bryan McMahon (Ratoath), Donal Lenihan (Dunboyne). Subs - Ruairi O Coileain (Navan O'Mahonys 0-1) for S McEntee 41 mins. C O'Brien (Ratoath) for Menton 44m, Thomas O'Reilly (Wolfe Tones 0-2) for McMahon 58m, Sean Tobin (Simonstown Gaels 0-1) for O'Sullivan 69m.

Black card - C McGill (replaced by David McQuillan St Patrick's 29 mins).

Louth - C Lynch; P Rath, P Reilly, K Carr; L Dullaghan, J Bingham, D Byrne; T Durnin, J Stewart; A Williams (0-1), P Smith, B Duffy (0-1); J McEneaney (1-2), E O'Connor, R Burns (0-2).

Subs - K Murphy for Rath 19 mins, C McKeever (1-0) for Dullaghan half-time, J Califf (0-3) for Durnin 40m, A McDonnell for Byrne 26m, R Moore for Smith 69m.

Black card - K Carr (replaced by R Holcroft, 1-0 27 mins).