Meath 0-18 Westmeath 1-11: Meath and Westmeath served up a contest of championship intensity before a crowd of 5,000 at Navan's Páirc Tailteann yesterday. Meath earned a semi-final tilt with Dublin as their opponents were reduced to 14 men on the straight red-card dismissal of Joe Fallon, 11 minutes into the second half.
For spells before that Westmeath were struggling to keep in touch. Meath had four points on the board in the opening 10 minutes through Peter Curran (two frees), Mairtín Doran and Joe Sheridan before Alan Mangan erased Westmeath's blank after 14 minutes. Two points from Daithí Regan followed by three Doran efforts helped push Meath into a 0-5 to 0-9 half-time lead.
It was 0-12 to 0-6 when Fallon saw red. Thirteen minutes into the second half Westmeath struck for the goal through Denis Glennon. The deficit was reduced to two points but Meath finished with points from Doran and Barry Lynch.
MEATH: R Nolan; D Kealy, T O'Connor, C King; D Clarke, J Donoghue, S Kenny; B Lynch (0-1), A Moyles; P Curran (0-4, three frees), J Sheridan (0-3), S McInerney (0-1); D Regan (0-3, one free), C Brennan, M Doran (0-5). Subs: N Crawford for Kealy (48 mins), N McLoughlin (0-1) for Clarke (50 mins), P Byrne for McInerney (63 mins), D Whyte for Curran (63 mins), W Reilly for Moyles (70 mins).
WESTMEATH: G Connaughton, J Davitt, B Nannery, S Cleary, G Dillon, M Ennis (0-1), D McDermott, B Murtagh, N Kilmartin, D Heavin (0-1), D Glennon (1-1), J Nugent, A Mangan (0-7, four frees), PJ Ward (0-1), J Fallon. Subs: D Duffy for Kilmartin (14 mins), J Keane for Davitt (21 mins), G Glennon for Cleary (26 mins), P Bannon for Murtagh (41 mins), F Newman for Nannery 62 mins.
Referee: D Fahey (Longford).
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