Ulster SFC Quarter-final replay/Armagh 3-11 Donegal 1-10: This was about as magical and flowing as Gaelic football gets. Almost 20,000 paying customers were totally absorbed in a priceless advertisement for Ulster football and all agreed afterwards it would be a wonderful thing if Armagh and Donegal could play every week.
Just kidding. Sadly, the pictures broadcast around the country at tea-time on Saturday told no lies. The Horror, The Horror. It was ugly, it was personal, it was wild, and a spirited provincial rivalry was pitched into something approaching mutual loathing by the events in Clones on Saturday evening.
And yet the match was never less than fascinating. Games starring Armagh tend to have that characteristic. They won this contest in every imaginable way and yet seemed oddly disturbed by what had just taken place. More on that later.
Donegal found themselves joining the short and infamous list of teams reduced to 12 players and now have to prepare for a long trip to Aughrim with something of a skeleton squad. They ran at each other head on, these counties, and perhaps it was predictable that Armagh walked away afterwards. It remains to be seen at what cost.
It was one of those overcast and humid Clones days and the dead air along with the tension of the replay made for an anxious ground. Unfortunately, referee Maurice Deegan lost the faith of the players and supporters early on and surrendered control of the field midway through the second half, when havoc reigned.
The pity was that John Bannon, a man well versed in policing Ulster passions, was present as the replacement whistler. You know it is a bad day for the referee when both managers are fuming afterwards.
Brian McEniff approached Deegan at half-time but his protests were cut off by the clearly agitated Joe Kernan and the old friends debated heatedly at the entrance to the tunnel. Afterwards, Big Joe was still animated.
"I won't be blamed for this. I said I was not happy with his first half but I didn't abuse him for his performance. Am I not entitled to do that? All I know was it was frustrating to try and play out there.
"We had a quality game last week and today was a frustrating day. Maybe we managers blame everyone but ourselves but it was frustrating."
McEniff was dismayed for more obvious reasons. He left the field under a cloud, having got entangled in a blazing row with Kieran McGeeney. He had to stomach another rampant Armagh conclusion and the sight of three of his players sent off, an affront to the philosophy he has coached for four decades.
Brian Roper and Eamon McGee went after two yellow cards drawn from pure frustration. Adrian Sweeney walked on a straight red after 57 minutes when the game was on the brink of anarchy. Armagh full back Francie Bellew was red-carded during that passage but appeared to have done nothing wrong.
By then, the score stood at 3-9 to 0-8. Armagh bossed the entire field; Donegal had disappeared into a private war of perceived and actual injustices.
They had looked scintillating for the first 10 minutes. A straight ball from Christy Toye had Roper in on goal after just 60 seconds but Paul Hearty smothered the snap shot brilliantly.
At the other end, Armagh sought out Donegal weak points with judicious use of the long, diagonal ball. They conjured an early goal and a point from Ronan Clarke and Steven McDonnell with moves that originated from dead-ball situations.
The first half-hour was edgy but gradually Armagh managed to distract Donegal from their game plan, and once the Donegal men began running individually at the Armagh defence, there could only be one outcome.
The game was still there for McEniff's boys at the break as they trailed 1-7 to 0-5.
But the excellent Aaron Kernan worked the ball forward for the next score, a McDonnell free. Then came the McGee dismissal for a stray elbow that McDonnell shipped with a thespian's flair. It was not enough to prevent the Killeavy man from nailing a gorgeous goal just one minute later, after bolting on to Malachy Mackin's weighted pass.
As Donegal fell into disarray, Armagh drove home the advantage. A risky kick-out from young Michael Boyle was returned by way of an audacious lob from McDonnell. The ball hit the post and Mackin was there to bang it home.
The 12 Donegal men on the field played admirably for those last 15 minutes. It was clear that if Donegal learn to relax they could still go a long way. By the end, poor Maurice Deegan must have felt like the Charlie Sheen character in Platoon, with fallen men strewn across the landscape.
What Armagh did was extraordinary. They held Donegal to just one score from play (a Brendan Devenney goal on 60 minutes). They made Donegal forget the reason they came to Clones to begin with and through the height of the madness, they produced some sumptuous football.
And yet there was a sense of vulnerability in this victory. It was strange to see a team that had won so well leave the field so rattled, as if some in their number had a premonition. And with Derry and possibly Tyrone still ahead in Ulster, September seemed far away on Saturday.
But the Armagh machine rolls on. The next Armagh-Donegal billing may carry a PG warning but if it transpires later this summer, it will be the hottest ticket in town.
ARMAGH: P Hearty; A Mallon, F Bellew, E McNulty; A Kernan (0-3, 2f), K McGeeney, A McCann; P Loughran, P McGrane; M O'Rourke (0-2), J McEntee, O McConville (0-1); S McDonnell (1-3, 1f), R Clarke (1-1), B Mallon. Subs: M Mackin (1-0) for R Clarke (half-time inj), A O Rourke (0-1) for A McCann (42 mins), T McEntee for J McEntee (46 mins), J Toal for P McGrane (64 mins), K McElvanna for A Mallon (64 mins).
DONEGAL: M Boyle; N McCready, E McGee, K Lacy; S Carr, B Monaghan, D Diver; B Boyle, N Gallagher; C Toye, M Hegarty, B Roper; C McFadden (0-6, 5f, 1 50), A Sweeney, B Devenney (1-4, frees). Subs: R Kavanagh for N McCready (half-time), S McDermott for B Boyle (43 mins), B Dunnion for D Diver (63 mins), R Bradley for B Devenney (65 mins inj).
Referee: M Deegan (Laois).
