Meath's bid for a long-awaited return to the Allianz football league's top flight remains alive ahead of the final round of Division 2 games following a commanding win in Navan.
An 18-point win amounted to a strong response by the players to manager Andy McEntee, who was critical of their failure to get more than a draw against Cork last time out.
Goals from full-forward trio Donal Lenihan, Bryan McMahon and Sean Tobin sealed the win for Meath though, in truth, the hosts didn't have to be at their very best to overcome an out-of-sorts Fermanagh.
The visitors scored just three points from open play and slipped badly out of the contest after a brief period on top early on.
Meath's fourth win from six outings leaves them firmly in the shake up for promotion ahead of next Sunday's final-round trip to Clare.
But Fermanagh remain stuck in the relegation placings ahead of their final-round tie against Derry, who are a point worse off at the bottom.
Fermanagh did approach the tie with precious momentum after beating Clare in Round 5 and points from Sean Quigley and Ryan Lyons inside four minutes moved them 0-02 to 0-00 ahead.
They didn't score again until the 26th minute, though, and Meath hit them for 2-03 in that period to take firm control of proceedings.
Lenihan scored their first goal from a 15th-minute penalty after a neat move involving Graham Reilly, Tobin and Cillian O'Sulllivan ended with a drag-back on O'Sullivan.
Lenihan fired low and left to put Meath ahead for the first time and they remained ahead from then on.
Lenihan and Bryan Menton tagged on points before McMahon hit an excellent second Meath goal in the 23rd minute.
McMahon came running out to meet a long ball in from Reilly and spun away from Mickey Jones before advancing clear on goal and rifling a shot past Chris Snow.
Jones was black-carded soon after and Fermanagh leaked further scores to James Toher, Reilly and McMahon as Meath hit the interval with a 2-06 to 0-04 lead.
It got even worse for Fermanagh after the restart, with just two points for the Ernesiders in the entire second half, from Lee Cullen and Eddie Courtney.
Meath continued to dominate at the other end with Tobin, O'Sullivan and McMahon adding points before their third goal in the 50th minute from Tobin.
It was a slightly fortunate strike as Tobin rose up highest to beat the keeper after a Reilly point attempt dropped short.
James McEntee came off the bench and fired two points for Meath, who had the luxury of coasting over the finish line in front of their home fans.
Meath: P O'Rourke; D Keogan, C McGill, D Tobin; P Harnan, B Power, S McEntee; B Menton (0-01), J Toher (0-01, 0-01f); A Forde, G Reilly (0-02), E Wallace; B McMahon (1-03), S Tobin (1-02), D Lenihan (1-01, 1-00 pen). Subs: C O'Sullivan (0-03) for Forde, M Burke for Harnan (black card), J McEntee (0-02) for Reilly, C O'Brien for Toher, A Douglas for Power, J Wallace for E Wallace.
Fermanagh: C Snow; K Connor (0-01), C Cullen, M Jones; CP Murphy, B Mulrone, A Breen; E Donnelly, L Cullen (0-01); P McCusker, R Lyons (0-01), R Jones; E Courtney (0-01, 0-01f), S Quigley (0-02, 0-02f), J McMahon. Subs: T Daly for M Jones (black card), D McCusker for Lyons, P Rehill for Murphy, C Corrigan for McCusker, T McCaffrey for Courtney, D Teague for Quigley.
Referee: D O'Mahoney (Tipperary).
