Both sides experimented at Navan as Meath took the spoils against Wexford, 1-13 to 1-10.

With Seamus McEnaney and Jason Ryan both using the occasion to field teams that were far from full strength, the hungrier hosts bossed the opening period to lead by 0-11 to 1-3 at the break

It was all one-way traffic in the first twelve minutes as determined Meath struck seven points to no reply.

Tom Walsh - who had an impressive outing on the edge of the square - got the first and Graham Reilly's free made it 0-2 to no score. Walsh, Reilly and Paddy Gilsenan continued the onslaught before Mickey Burke and Walsh - with his third - were on hand to make it seven-zero to the victors.

PJ Banville's 20th-minute goal opened the visitors' account and sparked new life into the Slaneysiders as they came back within the minimum before the resurgent Royals hit four unanswered points to lead by five at the break.

Eric Bradley and Kevin Og Grady pulled back two Model County scores before Walsh goaled 14 minutes after the restart to give the hosts a comfortable 1-11 to 1-5 advantage.

Brosnan and Reilly traded scores but Wexford again rallied as they floated over three without reply. Reilly and Flynn traded the last two points as Meath held out to make a winning start to the season.

Meath - D Gallagher; G O'Brien, B Menton, M Burke (0-1); C McGuinness, S McAnarney, C Lenehan; M Ward, C Gillespie (0-1); B Meade, G Reilly (0-5), D Tobin; P Gilsenan (0-2), T Walsh (1-3), A Forde (0-1). Subs: C O'Connor for Lenehan, D Smyth for Forde, B Hanlon for Meade, J Carry Lynch for Gillespie, C O'Dwyer for Reilly.

Wexford - T Hughes; N Murphy, F Lancaster, S Culleton; L Chin (0-1), G Molloy, B Malone; D Watters, A Shore; E Bradley (0-1), B Brosnan (0-3), PJ Banville (1-0); P Byrne, K O'Grady (0-1), K Rowe. Subs: P Kelly (0-1) for O'Grady, A Flynn (0-2) for Chin, R Quinlivan (0-1) for Shore, S Banville for Rowe, A Doyle for Bradley.

Ref - P Kneel (Louth). Tweet

Most Read Stories