Armagh's victory was more convincing than a one-point margin suggests as they physically outmuscled a strangely subdued and listless Meath team in yesterday's Section B clash at Navan.

The portents appeared promising for Meath despite the late defection of full forward Tommy Dowd with influenza: Darren Fay, Mark Reilly and John McDermott were all returning to Meath colours but of the trio, only Fay could be thoroughly satisfied with his performance.

Reilly suffered the misfortune of having to track Armagh's most influential and assured forward, Diarmuid Marsden, in a half in which the visitors benefited from a very strong wind. Marsden finished with a tally of five points, three from play, as he provided the cutting edge to the Armagh attack for the first 30 minutes.

McDermott enjoyed a marginally better fate, but he too found the demands imposed by the excellent midfield combination of Jarlath Burns and Paul McGrane too difficult to master. The Meath captain did not receive substantial assistance from Graham Geraghty, who looked lightweight in his new role at this level.

Burns's fielding in the closing 10 minutes under pressure served as an inspiration to his team-mates, a fact acknowledged by Armagh manager Brian Canavan: "I thought Jarlath and Paul were outstanding. They won the midfield battle which helped us enormously.

"This is a great lift for Armagh football. There were a lot of young players out there today and I thought they did very well. I was never really worried at any stage but felt that we should have managed more scores for the possession that we had." Armagh led 0-6 to 0-3 at the interval, with Marsden contributing four points, but the best score of the half was McGrane's superb long-range point. It was the big midfielder who ensured the second half began auspiciously for the visitors with a superb goal after 24 seconds.

McGrane started the move at midfield and then regained possession again 20 metres out, stepped between two hesitant defenders and authoritatively hammered the ball across Cormac O'Sullivan into the corner of the net.

Meath struck back almost immediately when Ray McGee profited from sloppy Armagh defending to shoot past Brendan Tierney. Points from McGrane and Marsden sustained the visitors' momentum as Trevor Giles single-handedly tried to redress the balance, scoring four points in the closing 23 minutes without reply. Armagh did miss two golden opportunities from frees, but deservedly held on for a merited victory.