New boy McKeever spearheads Royal rampage
PADRAIG McKEEVER, making his first League start, led a third-quarter scoring burst which yielded seven points and took Meath out of sight at Pairc Tailteann.
The Royals turned up the heat on the restart after an indifferent opening half.
During that purple patch, centre-forward McKeever took his tally of points to six, while first-half substitute Eamon Wallace hit three in an impressive showing.
Clare, who trailed 0-6 to 0-4 at half-time, were very poor and are under pressure to retain their second-tier status.
The Banner men were devoid of ideas in attack, and Jamie Malone was their only forward to contribute to their scoring.
They failed to create anything of substance despite the prompting of midfielders Gary Brennan and Cathal O’Connor.
Nevertheless, the opening half was closely contested, with the sides level on four occasions.
The flying Graham Reilly top-scored in that period with three points for Meath, who dropped efforts short on seven occasions.
The hosts also squandered goal chances – both Reilly and Adam Flanagan lost control of the ball when in good positions to raise the green flag.
However when Meath eventually found their shooting boots in the second half Clare had no response.
To compound their misery, Clare finished with 14 after Cian O’Dea was black-carded in the closing stages after earlier receiving a yellow.