Meath 0-11 Louth 0-10
Meath held off a brave second half fightback from neighbours Louth to book their place in the Bord na Mona O'Byrne Cup with a one-point victory in Drogheda.
Mick O'Dowd's side closed out the game with just 14 men after Barry Tormey’s late dismissal.
In the end, having been accurate for so long, Louth's shooting boots let them down as they hit six late wides.
The Royals advance to the Leinster pre-season final against Longford – their first O'Byrne Cup decider since losing to Kildare in 2014.
Jim McEneaney had fired Louth into a third-minute lead with a 30-metre free but two points inside a minute from Michael Newman and a fine score from Sean Tobin meant that the visitors led 0-03 to 0-01 after 13 minutes.
McEneaney responded with another free to close the gap back to the minimum on the quarter hour mark but four points without reply from Cillian O'Sullivan, Graham Reilly, Cathal Finn and Newman meant Meath had stretched their advantage to five points by the 26th minute.
Indeed, the gap could have been more had Louth goalkeeper Craig Lynch not denied Dalton McDonagh with a point blank stop on the quarter hour.
The Wee County did manage a further point, their first from play, through McEneaney in first-half stoppage time to leave it 0-07 to 0-03 at the break.
A Conor Downey point within two minutes of the restart then restored the Royal County's five-point lead before Louth hit a purple patch that saw them score four points without reply in the space of eight minutes.
A brace from Tommy Durnin set the ball rolling before further points from Adrian Reid and Declan Byrne left just a point between the sides at 0-08 to 0-07 on 49 minutes.
Newman then eased the pressure on the visitors with a free two minutes later but almost immediately they were reduced to 14 men when Tormey was shown a straight red card for an off the ball incident involving McEneaney.
A Tobin free followed but Louth responded with points from Derek Maguire and Byrne to cut the deficit back to the minimum once more with 13 minutes remaining.
At that stage the Wee County were well on top but four successive wides – their first of the game – meant they failed to find the equaliser their efforts deserved.
That allowed Newman to tap over a close-range free, which was enough to see Meath into the final despite a late stoppage-time point from Louth's James Califf.
Meath: P O'Rourke, A Douglas, D Keoghan, B Tormey; D Smyth, M Burke, C Finn (0-01); H Rooney, G Reilly (0-01); S Tobin (0-02, 1f), C O'Sullivan (0-01), C Downey (0-01); D Lenihan, D McDonagh, M Newman (0-5, 3f, 1 45).
Subs: S McEntee for D Lenihan, 42; P Harnon for S Tobin 57; J O'Reilly for C Downey 60; R O'Coilleann for D McDonagh 68; P Geraghty for C O'Sullivan 71.
Louth: C Lynch; P Rath, D Quigley, K Toner; D Maguire (0-01), D McMahon, K McLaughlin; T Durnin (0-02), J Stewart; D Byrne (0-02), C McKeever, Cathal Bellew; A Reid (0-01), J McEneaney (0-03, 2f), B Flanagan.
Subs: K Murphy for K Toner, 22; G McSorley for Cathal Belllew, 29; E Lafferty for K McLaughlin 34 (bc); R Holcroft for B Flanagan 62; A Williams for K Murphy 65; J Califf (0-01) for C McKeever 67.
Referee: B Tiernan (Dublin).
