Tony McEntee (right) tries to fend off Antrim's Ruari O'Loan

Armagh struggled to claim a 0-15 to 0-12 All-Ireland Football Qualifier win over Antrim at Casement while Monaghan exited with a 0-12 to 2-10 defeat by Meath at Clones.

Monaghan's dreadful first half performance put paid to their chances with Meath leading 2-8 to 0-2 at the interval although the Farney men did summon up a second period revival.

The all-Ulster clash in Belfast was a close affair throughout and it was only late in the fourth quarter that Armagh made the game safe.

Two early Kevin Madden frees helped the Saffrons into an early lead but helped by a couple of Steven McDonnell points Armagh hit back to lead 0-4 to 0-2.

But a slugglish Armagh outfit were unable to shake off an Antrim team which raised their performance considerably from last weekend's defeat by Tyrone.

The All-Ireland champions were held to 0-8 to 0-6 at the interval.

McDonnell and Oisin McConville had contributed three points each during the first half with Paul McGrane and Ronan Clarke notching the two other scores.

Antrim's first half scores were four Kevin Madden frees plus Anto Finnegan and Joe Quinn points.

Ronan Clarke (left) was on the scoresheet for Armagh

The match remainder tight in the third quarter.

Antrim pulled to within a point of the All-Ireland champions midway through the half only for McDonnell and McConville scores to put Armagh 0-12 to 0-9 ahead again.

Helped by McDonnell bringing up his tally to seven points, Armagh finally seemed to have shaken off the brave Saffrons when they led 0-14 to 0-9 with 12 minutes left.

However, the brave Saffrons then hit the next two scores to leave only a kick of the ball between the sides.

But the Saffrons were unable to get any closer to Armagh in the closing moments and Joe Kernan's side held on to claim an unconvincing win.

At Clones, Monaghan will be kicking themselves after a shocking first half performance handed victory to Meath.

As against Kildare a week earlier, Sean Boylan's side made a fast start with Graham Geraghty flicking a goal in the third minute after a long ball by Shane McCague.

Woods' introduction

By the 20th minute, Meath lead 1-5 to 0-1 against a decidedly flat Monaghan team.

It got even worse on the stroke of half-time when David Crimmons ran through the Monaghan defence unchallenged to ram in a second goal which put Meath 2-8 to 0-2 ahead.

Presumably spurred by a few choice words by manager and former Meath star Colm Coyle, Monaghan picked up their performance considerably in the second half.

The introduction of Rory Woods helped to breath life into the Monaghan attack but there was also the element of Meath going into a more defensive mode to protect their lead.

Monaghan steadily chipped away at the Meath lead in the final 20 minutes without ever seriously looking like restoring parity.

Entering injury-time, Meath still led by five and while Woods added a further free, time then ran out for the home side.

All-Ireland Qualifiers

Antrim 0-12 0-15 Armagh
Monaghan 0-12 2-10 Meath
Carlow 0-13 1-14 Tipperary
Clare 1-8 1-12 Offaly
Leitrim 1-11 2-9 Roscommon