The last of the crowd were ebbing from the ground as Dave Billings came out of the Dublin dressingroom shaking his head slowly. "Things are bad lads," he said, "there's a priest in there." The remark perfectly captured the odd poignancy of post-match life under the stands. Turn right for mourning. Turn left for rejoicing. While Dublin buried their season, Armagh quietly celebrated theirs. While Dublin took a last wistful look at Croke Park, Armagh laid plans.

Semi-finals are hard games to lose. They leave a residue of regret. To surrender one with an injury time free-kick just having come back off the post means that the looking back, the what-ifs, will last until Christmas. Having made a series of small errors in the last few minutes will only add to the frustration. That's Dublin's diet until it all begins again.

Tommy Lyons walked down the corridor a few minutes after his team had made the same trek. He was detained by the hugs and kisses of family and well-wishers. Just behind him, heading out onto the pitch for an interview, was Ronan Clarke. As Tommy accepted condolences, Clarke got the harroos. "Young Clarkie, ye lad ye! Well done, big Roanie."

John McCloskey's gleeful pointing at the press box notwithstanding, Armagh were gracious in victory not least because they know all about the bad days here, they've had the experience of being mugged with the promised land in sight. When Kieran McGeeney spoke about having had to mark his old friend Dessie Farrell, he echoed that graciousness but underlined the difference between the two teams yesterday. "Dessie has been to a final. I never have." Armagh were hungry and desperate.

Whenever Dublin got two points ahead in the second half, Armagh clawed their way back as if their lives depended on doing so.

Dublin's loss will be mourned, but the consolation is self-evident. An under-21 semi-final next Saturday. A young team that has improved by great bounds this summer. A series of full houses which herald the birth of a new and exciting force in the game. They will have their day.

Ray Cosgrove, whose late free hit the post, should have the fewest regrets of all. Yesterday was his best performance of an extraordinary season. Denied an All-Ireland medal, he'll hardly be denied an All Star.

First, though, Armagh will have their time. Long overdue it is, too. A great and enthusiastic football county will bring plenty of colour to Croke Park later this month and much as the natives of the capital will mourn the absence of the blue jerseys and the swagger, the occasion won't be diminished.

Few counties have the ravenous hunger for an All-Ireland that Armagh have and few have suffered the traumas they have experienced. Not just the bad days when they have driven back over the Border with tails between their legs, but the sublime frustration of missing out in that dizzy period of the '90s when Ulster teams won four All-Irelands in a row and just missed a fifth.

Yesterday's was a game that caught fire early in the second half and blazed all the way to the finish. The opening 35 minutes were the stuff that managers enjoy. Players cancelling each other out, the odd switch here, the odd switch there. Two teams feeling each other out in the tactical sense.

When they'd had their tea and biscuits, though, the mood changed. Armagh took the lead for the first time in the game when Steven McDonnell popped a point after Dublin gave away possession cheaply. Senan Connell equalised in the 39th minute and you could feel the tempo quickening.

Then, a minute later, Armagh cut through the Dublin defence with such rapidity that Paddy McKeever scarcely had time to get the ball from his hands to his boot before his momentum carried him into the Dublin net. Suddenly Dublin were three points behind.

Within five minutes they would have their best moment and their worst moment. After McKeever's goal, Dublin swept back up the field and Ciarán Whelan donned his old Superman cape for a minute or so. He came bearing down on the Armagh defence like a runaway horse and then crashed a shot against the crossbar and down into the net.

Armagh were reeling. "We got the goal intending to tag on a couple of points," said Oisín McConville, "and then they came back and scored the goal of the season."

The green flag had no sooner been replaced when Alan Brogan had the umpire reaching for a white one. John McEntee pulled a point back for Armagh and then, just as the game really began to crackle, Dublin lost their midfielder Darren Magee. The loss was significant.

Early in the game Dublin had cleaned up possession in the middle third of the field. This pre-eminence had waned as the first half wore on, but with Magee gone it vanished totally.

Still, the game swung this way and that. Dublin two points ahead. Then level. Than two ahead again. They got to the hour mark two points head, Cosgrove having popped two points on his way to making this his most complete performance of the season.

Armagh wouldn't lie down, though. Clarke and McEntee equalised and then, with a few minutes still left, McConville soloed in from the right and fisted a point.

Small things began to go wrong for Dublin. Dessie Farrell dropped an inside pass. Collie Moran stuck a bad wide. Jason Sherlock hurried a free and lost possession.

Finally in the 71st minute of the game, Dublin's final chance came and went. Cosgrove, immaculate all afternoon, hoofed a free from his hands. "I didn't even see it," said Tommy Lyons. "I didn't want to look and I turned away when I saw it was heading wide."

In the end, Lyons gave his last press conference of the summer in a small sideroom. He'd been talking his team down but thinking them up all season. We've done great he'd say, but yesterday he admitted his sights were firmly on the All-Ireland all along.

Yesterday, he was the losing manager, but he gets the final say because he has been the character of the summer and because he summed up what is best in GAA. "We're not afraid to take our beating lads," he said, "they've had four bad days down here and if you take Dublin out of the equation, you have to be happy for Armagh. They deserve a good day. We'll have a lot of good days here and this summer we've learned a lot. In Armagh, they are GAA people just like us. They'll have their day in the sun and at half-five today, I can sit here and say that I wish them the best." And that was it. Over and out from Radio Tommy.

By the way, there were 79,386 in Croke Park to see it all. In case we are becoming complacent about crowds that size, it was interesting to note that 20 years ago, when Armagh played in a All-Ireland semi-final against the great Kerry team of the era, there were just 17,523 there.

These are the best of times.