Disappointment for Meath supporters at Leinster semi-final
Meath supporters in the crowd of 42, 259 ultimately left Croke Park dejected despite a spirited first-half performance by their team against Dublin in this evening's Leinster SFC semi-fnal.
What they witnessed in the second-half was fairly unpalatable as Dublin advanced to the decider on a 0-21 to 0-11 scoreline and will meet Westmeath in the decider.
Mick O'Dowd and his men must re-group a face into the qualifiers with a game against Derry next on the horizon.
Five wides in 10 minutes was a surprising statistic for the super Dubs as Meath established and early 0-3 to 0-1 advantage that could have been greater if Dalton McDonagh had netted from a good chance in fourth minute.
Two Graham Reilly points and one from Cillian O'Sullivan (free) gave Meath that early lead, but by the end of the opening quarter it was level-pegging at 0-4 each.
Dean Rock (two), Bernard Brogan and Brian Fenton sent over for Dublin with Mickey Newman's pointed free from close to 50 metres drawing the sides level.
Dublin picked off some comfortable points for the remainder of the half to lead by 0-11 to 0-8 at the interval after 35 minutes of what could be described as shadow-boxing.
Two points each from Rock, Diarmuid Connolly and Paul Flynn and one by Brogan were countered by a brace of Newman frees and one each by O'Sullivan and Eamon Wallace.
Meath had a glimpse of a goal chance a minute into the second-half, but Dublin survived and saw their opponents kick a couple of poor wides before Rock sent over two points (one free) to extend the advantage to five in as many minutes.
From that stage on there was never any real doubt about the outcome as Meath managed points from Newman and Reilly, but it was one-way traffic with Dublin in the driving seat.
The points flowed from Rock (four), Connolly (two), Paul Mannion and Brogan as Dublin eased into another decider.
Meath substitute Ronan Jones scored Meath's third point of the second half in added time while another substitute, Joey Wallace picked up a black card.
Dublin - Stephen Cluxton; Philip McMahon, John Cooper, David Byrne; James McCarthy, Cian O'Sullivan, John Small; Brian Fenton (0-1), Michael Denis Bastick; Paul Flynn (0-2), Kevin McManamon, Ciaran Kilkenny; Dean Rock (0-10 nine frees), Diarmuid Connolly (0-4), Benard Brogan (0-3). Subs - Michael Darragh Macauley for Bastick half-time, Paul Mannion (0-1 for Brogan 53 mins, Paddy Andrews for McManamon 58m, Eric Lowndes for Small 60m, Michael Fitzsimons for O'Sullivan 63m, Con O'Callaghan for Flynn 68m.
Meath - Paddy O'Rourke; Donnacha Tobin, Donal Keogan, Mickey Burke; Darragh Smyth, Padraic Harnan, Alan Douglas; Harry Rooney, Cian O'Brien; Graham Reilly (0-3), Cillian O'Sullivan (0-2 one free), Eamon Wallace (0-1); Dalton McDonagh, Andrew Tormey, Mickey Newman (0-4 three frees). Subs - Ronan Jones (0-1) for Tormey 53 mins, Seamus Lavin for Wallace 54m, Sean Tobin for McDonagh 60m, Joey Wallace for Reilly 63m, Bryan McMahon for O'Sullivan and Cathal Finn for Douglas both 67m