Meath 4-11
Wicklow 2-5

Meath booked their place in the last four of the O'Byrne Cup when scoring an impressive 12-point victory over hosts Wicklow at a wet and windy Baltinglass.

Mick O'Dowd's experimental side were always in control of the fixture and goals from the Bray brothers, Stephen and David, parachuted them into a 2-3 to 0-0 lead after just 11 minutes of play.

They resumed for the second half with a 2-6 to 0-3 advantage and second half goals from Padraig McKeever and Dalton McDonagh added gloss to a fine all-round team performance.

Graham Reilly and Donal Lenihan also impressed in the winners' attack.

Substitute James Sheerin and Seanie Furlong netted consolation goals for Harry Murphy's men who look to have a lot of work to do if they are to secure a return to Division 3 in the months ahead.

The Garden County's starting forwards failed to score in the opening 35 minutes and it was left to the half-back trio of Kevin Murphy, Paul McLoughlin and Dean Healy to take up the slack.

The Royals reward is a semi-final showdown against DCU - who scored a surprise 3-8 to 0-16 win over Dublin - in Pairc Tailteann next Sunday.

Meath - C McHugh; C Young, S Curran, M Burke; D Dalton, E Harrington, D Tobin; C Sheridan, C Gillespie; P McKeever (1-2), D Carroll (0-1), G Reilly (0-2); D Bray (1-2, 0-1f), S Bray (1-1), D Lenihan (0-2). Subs: S Kenny (0-1) for Tobin, D McDonagh (1-0) for S Bray, P Gilsenan for Dalton, D Larkin for Reilly, B McMahon for Lenihan, D McQuillan for Curran.

Wicklow - R Lambert; M Staines, M O'Brien, C Hyland; K Murphy (0-1), P McLoughlin (0-1), D Healy (0-1); N Gaffney, R Finn; C Murphy, J Stafford, A Merriman; D Odlum, S Furlong (1-0), P McWalter. Subs: J Manley for O'Brien, A McLoughlin (0-1f) for Odlum, J Sheerin (1-0) for Merriman, P Dalton (0-1) for C Murphy, P Cunningham for McWalter.

Referee - E Kinsella. Tweet

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