Meath 0-18 Waterford 0-9: Meath went into this fixture in Navan yesterday as 100 to 1 on raging hot favourites, but they made very hard work of seeing off the challenge of Waterford, who had lost by 28 points to Cavan seven days earlier.

After racing into a four-point lead in the opening nine minutes, the home side allowed the opposition into the game. Despite losing impressive midfielder Gary Hurney, who was stretchered off in the second quarter, Waterford only trailed by 0-5 to 0-6 at the break.

Meath made six changes from the team which started against Louth last week, and one of those on trial, right corner forward Ray McGee, made his mark with six points, five from play.

Waterford kept in touch in the third quarter, but although Graham Geraghty was yellow carded for the second game in a row, Meath pulled away with four points in the closing stages.

MEATH: B Murphy; B O'Reilly, A Moyles, S Mac Gabhann; S Kenny, D Crimmins, D Kealy; N Crawford (0-2), C McCarthy; N Kelly (0-3), G Geraghty, J Cullinane; R McGee (0-6, one free), T Giles (0-2), C Brennan. Subs: P Byrne (0-1) for Cullinane (21 mins); M Burke (0-1) for McCarthy, yellow card (22 mins); D Regan (0-1) for Brennan (39 mins); C King for Kealy (46 mins); J Sheridan (0-1, free) for Geraghty, yellow card (53 mins); O Murphy (0-1) for Burke (69 mins).

WATERFORD: T Wall; P Ogle, C O'Keeffe, L Hurney; A Effernan, M Ahearne, N Hennessy; G Hurney, S Dempsey; W Hennessy (0-3), W Kavanagh, S Cunningham; J Wall (0-2), P Hurney (0-2), A Fitzgerald (0-1, free). Sub: R Hennessy (0-1) for L Hurney (24).

YELLOW CARDS: Meath: C McCarthy (22 mins), G Geraghty (53 mins).

Referee: Michael Sludden (Tyrone).