Dublin 1-13 Armagh 1-14This is what it comes down to. You plan, you practise and you perform. Ray Cosgrove, comfortably Dublin's most-reliable forward throughout this memorable summer, addresses the free. He has won it himself, having been fouled by Enda McNulty. Thirty metres out, nicely angled for a right-footed kick, and the match, the season, riding on it.

We are in injury-time at the end of this second Bank of Ireland All-Ireland semi-final. This is the last kick, or as near as makes no difference. To thicken the plot, Declan Darcy has come in as a replacement - presumably, we thought, to take any frees late in the match. But he's only arrived and this doesn't require any long-range acumen.

Anyway, for over 70 minutes Cosgrove has been having his best match of the championship in open play. He is officially the leading scorer of 2002. His confidence must be up to full. There is an anxious hush around Croke Park, Armagh supporters nearly as apprehensive as Dublin's - but not quite.

Many can't watch, heads bowed in resignation staring into the sky-blue polyester. Whatever chilly premonitions they're experiencing come to pass. The kick swings out to the right of the posts, comes back, slowly, slowly, but hits the post and rebounds into play. In that moment it's over and the spell is broken.

There was always a good chance that Dublin's tumultuous summer would end in melodrama. But for all the understandable sympathy that the cruel denouement visits on Cosgrove and Dublin, the better team has won.

Virtually all one-point matches come down to nerve.

You could have scrapped most of this match and just played out the final minutes. That's where it was always likely it would be decided. Three times in recent matches at the semi-final stage, Armagh haven't been able to close the deal. So think of them yesterday entering the last eight minutes with Dublin pulling two ahead and the Coliseum rocking with the clamour of the urban hordes.

Those inclined to see Armagh's disappointments more as a desertion of fate than failures of will were vindicated. The three points came from Ronan Clarke, John McEntee - outstanding in the second half with three points and a generator's worth of energy - and Oisín McConville. Inexorably they pulled Dublin back and pushed them under.

To be fair to Cosgrove and his particular trauma, Dublin let the plot slip in the minutes beforehand.

Three good chances were created. In the 64th minute replacement Darren Homan surged through the middle and had to score a point; instead, he shot with worrying lack of conviction and the ball glided harmlessly to Benny Tierney. Wrong man in right place.

But three minutes later, there was right man in right place. Jason Sherlock's lovely, precise jab flew into Dessie Farrell's flight path. Throughout his career the Na Fianna veteran has been a gold standard for such ball. This time he lost it. Of all times.

Two minutes later Collie Moran, restored to the scoreboard after coming in for the second half, wildly mis-kicked a chance well within his capacity.

That was the script for the only part of the drama that mattered.

What led to that stage was edgy and disappointing until half-time, gripping and wildly fluctuating in the second half. Whereas the first 35 minutes of football had been staccato and unsettled, what followed had raged torrentially backwards and forwards.

But first things first. Dublin moved Farrell to mark Kieran McGeeney from the start. The move kept the Armagh captain relatively quiet for most of the first half, but there were ominous signs that he was gaining the upper hand as half-time approached. That central issue resolved, Dublin's remaining forwards buzzed around but, with the exception of Cosgrove, to little effect.

Their link play was poor, they failed to make constructive runs, and too frequently the ball was given away when promising attacking positions had been gained. Darren Magee kicked a good point but then a wasteful wide. Armagh, in contrast, moved ball more crisply but their finishing was poor and some bad wides resulted.

They also got some nice scores. Steven McDonnell dispatched a lovely point from the left wing and Clarke, who gave Paddy Christie his least comfortable afternoon of the summer, finished a good move after taking a slickly-recycled ball from McEntee.

Dublin made a change at half-time, predictably substituting Shane Ryan - who had failed to enhance the ball-winning capability as hoped for and whose use of what ball he got had been hesitant - with Moran.

If the second half, which saw both teams raise their game, turned on anything it was centrefield. Armagh began to turn the screw here. Dublin weren't helped when Magee had to leave injured 10 minutes into the second half. but they were swamped as McGeeney led the charge on the breaks and McEntee dropped back to assist.

The game did ebb and flow, but if centrefield was a tennis match, you would have said Dublin were struggling to hold their service, whereas Armagh were firing aces into the opposition lines. As a result, Dublin struggled to cope with the pressure and it would have been doubly disappointing for the Ulster champions had they not won, given the possession.

Barry Cahill was the best of the full backs, with Christie in trouble and Coman Goggins having a miserable afternoon, between McDonnell scoring points, conceding needless and, at times, harshly-awarded frees.

Dublin had the pace up front to cut a few slices off Armagh. But not for the first time the McNulty brothers and Francie Bellew proved reluctant to concede the space in which they might be run ragged.

Dublin kept three up despite the need to service Cosgrove and the increasingly lively Alan Brogan.

Neither did they get the sort of considered ball that would give them chances to go to work in earnest.

No sooner have Dublin levelled the match for the fourth time in eight occasions on which the sides were level than the first goal arrives. John Toal's long ball is broken to Paddy McKeever by Diarmuid Marsden and although referee Michael Collins signals a penalty, he allows the ball to be followed into the net by McKeever.

A minute later and it's level again. Brogan offloads to Ciarán Whelan on the rampage and he blazes the ball over a rather advanced Tierney into the roof of the net.

Three times a recovered Dublin extend the lead to two points, but Armagh hang on and their redemption is personified when McConville - struggling in general play all afternoon - comes in stealthily along the endline and fists what will be the winner.

It was fitting that McConville and McEntee played such critical roles in this famous win, which takes Armagh into a first final in 25 years. On the sideline, their former club manager, Joe Kernan, would have recognised that bit of Crossmaglen ruthlessness surfacing at last on the county stage.

ARMAGH: 1. B Tierney; 4. F Bellew, 3. J McNulty, 2. E McNulty; 5. A O'Rourke, 6. K McGeeney (capt.), 7. A McCann; 8. J Toal, 9. P McGrane; 10. P McKeever, 11. J McEntee, 12. O McConville; 13. S McDonnell, 15, D Marsden, 14. R Clarke. Subs: 17. K Hughes for McCann (45 mins), 19. P Loughran for Toal (60 mins), 20. B O'Hagan for Marsden (67 mins), 18. C O'Rourke for McKeever (71 mins).

DUBLIN: 1. S Cluxton; 2. B Cahill, 3. P Christie, 4. C Goggins (capt.); 5. P Casey, 6. J Magee, 7. P Andrews; 8. C Whelan, 9. D Magee; 10. S Connell, 15. D Farrell, 11. S Ryan; 13. A Brogan, 12. J McNally, 14. R Cosgrove. Subs: 19. C Moran for Ryan (half-time), 18. D Homan for D Magee (46 mins), 20. J Sherlock for McNally (62 mins), 22. D Darcy for Moran (71 mins).

Yellow cards: Armagh: K Hughes (52 mins), A O'Rourke (55 mins), E McNulty (59 mins). Dublin: J McNally (8 mins), C Whelan (50 mins).