Meath 0-20 Louth 1-13
Eamon Wallace and Mickey Newman combined menacingly at Parnell Park as Meath saw off Louth to secure a glamour Leinster SFC semi-final clash with Dublin.
The speedy Wallace hit 0-04 from play while free-taker Newman delivered 0-07 to help preserve the Royal County's lengthy winning record over their neighbours in championship football.
Andrew Tormey impressed too for Mick O'Dowd's young Meath side with 0-03, while debutant Cillian O'Sullivan had a strong game in attack.
Meath led by seven with six minutes to go but were made to fight all the way following a Jim McEneaney Louth goal.
There was no fairytale ending for the Wee County though who head for the qualifiers and a tricky date with Derry next weekend.
Louth came into contest armed with momentum after a positive Allianz league campaign and a 10-point first-round win over Carlow.
Revenge was on their minds too having not beaten Meath in the championship since 1975, while they were infamously robbed of the 2010 Leinster title by a refereeing error.
But Louth only led briefly early on in front of a full house of around 8,500 as Meath set the tempo from the off.
Meath led 0-11 to 0-06 at half-time and should have been even further ahead as they kicked six wides.
Wallace scored four points in the half, while O'Sullivan was excellent on his first championship start, kicking two early points and linking up the play.
Tormey was named at midfield but started in the full-forward line and contributed a point, while the influential Graham Reilly split the posts too.
Louth operated with a two-man full-forward line of Conor Grimes and Ryan Burns with McEneaney lying a little deeper off the duo.
They have lots of potential but were well held by a strong Meath defence that was well marshalled by captain Donal Keogan and Padraic Harnan.
Louth's forwards managed just two points from open play in the first-half. One of those was from Bevan Duffy, who was black carded just before half-time after a body check on Mickey Burke.
Louth restarted with gusto and picked off three points in a row to make a game of it again.
Burns got the first from a free and midfielder Califf boomed over two more to leave it 0-11 to 0-09 in Meath's favour.
But that was as good as it for Louth who leaked the next four points in a row as Meath surged six clear for the first time in the game.
Reilly and Tormey kicked a brace of points each though Meath did lose corner-back Donnacha Tobin to a worrying lower leg injury.
Meath stretched their lead to 0-18 to 0-11 before McEneaney fired a Louth goal through a clutch of players in the 64th minute but they needed another which didn't arrive.
Meath: P O'Rourke; D Keogan, M Burke, D Tobin; P Harnan, D Smyth, A Douglas; H Rooney, C O'Brien (0-01); E Wallace (0-04), C O'Sullivan (0-02), G Reilly (0-03); A Tormey (0-03), D McDonagh, M Newman (0-07, 0-06f, 0-01 45).
Subs: C Finn for Tobin, B McMahon for McDonagh, D Lenihan for Tormey, S Tobin for Reilly.
Louth: C Lynch; P Rath, P Reilly, K Toner; A Williams (0-02), D McMahon, D Maguire; J Stewart, J Califf (0-04, 0-03f); D Byrne (0-02), J McEneaney (1-00), B Duffy (0-01); C McKeever, C Grimes, R Burns (0-04, 0-04f).
Subs: R Moore for Duffy BC, E Lafferty for McMahon, A Reid for McKeever, J Bingham for Toner, G McSorley for Byrne.
Referee: P Hughes (Armagh).
