Meath 0-11 Laois 0-8:MEATH EARNED themselves an O'Byrne Shield final crack at arch-rivals Dublin on Saturday when outpointing Laois in the rescheduled semi-final at Navan's Páirc Tailteann last night.

After getting off to a bright start with a brace of points in the opening five minutes, Laois failed to keep up the momentum and only registered once more before the break. Daithí Carroll gave them the lead from a free in the first attack and Ross Munnelly doubled the advantage from play.

However, Meath got on level terms on eight minutes and in a first half in which both sides were wasteful in finishing, the midlanders were the worse offenders with eight of the 12 wides.

The Skryne duo of Paddy O’Rourke, last year’s championship goalkeeper lining out at full-forward, and Ian Davis made their mark with a brace of points each before the break when the board read 0-6 to 0-3. Just before the half-time whistle Munnelly drew groans from the visiting support when kicking a simple-looking free wide. He made some amends with his second point from play immediately after the restart.

Laois also started the second half strongly and with Carroll (free) and Donie Brennan getting on target, they drew level with 40 minutes played. Meath moved Paddy O’Rourke back to goals and brought cousin Shane into attack for the second half.

Shane O’Rourke made his mark with four points, two fine efforts from play and a brace of converted frees. The first two of those scores came soon after the Laois scoring burst on the resumption and helped to steady the home side.

Again Laois failed to build on their second period of promise and only managed to add two more points. Shane O’Rourke finished off a fine contribution with the last two scores to leave three in it.

Laois will not have to wait long to try to reverse this result as the sides meet again in the National League Division Two at Portlaoise on Sunday week.

MEATH:B Murphy; C McGill, J Macken, C McGuinness; D Keoghan, B Menton, C King; T Walsh, C Gillespie; N Mooney (0-1), B Farrell (0-2, 0-2 frees), S McAnarney; P Gilsenan, P O'Rourke (0-2), I Davis (0-2). Subs: S O'Rourke (0-4, 0-2 frees) for Murphy, G O'Brien for McGill, K Reilly for Macken (all half-time), A Moyles for Mooney (40 mins), B Meade for Walsh (56 mins).

LAOIS: M Nolan; P Begley, C Boyle, R Kehoe; D Strong, S Julian, N Donoher; C Óg Greene, C Coss; R Munnelly (0-4, 0-2 frees), G Kavanagh, C Maher; J Enright (0-1), D Carroll (0-2, 0-2 frees), D Brennan (0-1). Subs: B Sheehan for Maher (42 mins), K Lillis for Carroll (42 mins), P McMahon for Begley, K Meaney for Coss (both 54 mins), MJ Tierney for Brennan (56 mins).

Referee: N Ward (Westmeath).