Meath 2-11 Cavan 0-12: Ray McGee was Meath's two-goal hero as they got back on the winning trail at the expense of a poor Cavan side in a less than memorable match before 7,000 spectators at Páirc Tailteann yesterday.
The sides were evenly matched before McGee struck for the goals after 21 and 25 minutes and Cavan were never a serious factor after that. Trailing by 0-6 to 2-4 at the break, they were far too dependent on the short-passing game.
Meath preferred the direct route and Joe Sheridan, who landed four points, is one forward who favours such a road.
Sheridan set up McGee for the first goal which the wing forward scored after his initial attempt was parried by Cavan goalkeeper Eoin Elliott but followed up to give Meath a 1-2 to 0-3 advantage.
The Cavan defence was again caught napping four minutes later when failing to clear a free from Darren Fay. The ball broke to McGee, who hit a ground shot to the net to leave Meath ahead 2-2 to 0-4. McGee went on to add three points, two from frees, in the second half as Cavan failed to raise a decent gallop as the home side strolled to their second brace of points. "No, I would prefer to have six,"remarked winning manager SeáBoylan when asked if he was happy with four points at the mid-term break.
Boylan again shuffled the pack with utility man Donal Curtis coming in and sending over his side's first and last points.
Both of Meath's corner backs, Paddy Reynolds and Mark O'Reilly, were booked in the first half but the home defence comfortably coped with the best efforts of the Cavan forwards.
Jason Reilly, who missed a couple of easy frees, had Cavan's best goal chance in the opening quarter but David Gallagher saved with a boot.
Niall Kelly was another to make a big impression for Meath with the substitute making a couple of notable catches around midfield and scoring from play and a long-range free.
"Cavan made matters difficult enough for us in the early stages and our first goal came at the right time. It's nice to get back on the winning trail, it's important to do well in the league," said Boylan. "It's all about success at the end of the day, some of them have All-Ireland medals, some have Leinster medals but none of them have a National League medal.
"It's still the second most important competition and deserves to be treated seriously."
Cavan have no points after three outings and on the evidence of another insipid offering, it's difficult to fancy their chances of landing points when the competition resumes in March.
MEATH: D Gallagher; P Reynolds, T O'Connor, M O'Reilly; N Nestor, D Fay, H Traynor; N Crawford, A Moyles; R McGee (2-3, two frees), D Curtis (0-2), D Byrne; B Dillon, E Kelly, J Sheridan (0-4, four frees). Subs: N Kelly (0-2, one free) for Dillon (25 mins), S MacGabhann for Nestor (49 mins), D Regan for McGee (59 mins), A Kenny for Curtis (68 mins), C McCarthy for Byrne (70 mins).
CAVAN: E Elliott; S Smith, T Prior, M Brides; K Crotty, T Crowe, E O'Reilly; C Collins (0-1), P McKenna; S Brady, A Forde (0-3, two frees), N Walsh; L Reilly (0-3), J Reilly (0-3, two frees), G Pierson (0-2). Subs: E Reilly for Walsh (38 mins), A Coleman for E Reilly (51 mins), S Maguire for Brady (62 mins).
Referee: R Doone (Antrim).
