ARMAGH HAVE known wilder days in Clones but this must be one of their most satisfying results in years.

Back in another Ulster final, Peter McDonnell may well be privately delighted at having guided the county team back to that familiar perch in his first season in charge but he looked a picture of composure as he called the game as he saw it.

"Sometimes when you go to 14 men, it sparks a reaction in people. Down went in at half-time having got to grips with midfield and the breaking ball. They started the second half in the same fashion. And the sending-off, it took us a few seconds to get into the structure we had to deal with it but after that, it seemed to be the spark that made us dig deeper. And thanks be to God, I didn't throw babies out with bath water and that experience was a highly valuable asset out there today."

That tricky combination of youth and experience was a theme other players were happily expanding on. Aaron Kernan is a measured young man but there was surely a slight barb in his observation about the prevailing attitude to the new generation of Armagh football players.

"Ciarán McKeever, myself, Stevie (Kernan), Charlie Vernon, Tony (Kernan) - we are supposed to be the young boys coming through that maybe aren't up to the standard that has been there for 10 years. But I think we answered all that today."

Kernan, such a crucial player for Armagh, played only the last half hour. He was named on the team and looked perfectly comfortable during the warm-up yet was replaced by Brendan Donaghy before the throw-in.

"Aaron hurt himself against Cavan and couldn't walk on Tuesday night. I had to name a team on Tuesday night. I had spoken to Brendan Donaghy and there was no way I was going back and telling him he wasn't playing."

For other teams, losing a player of Kernan's stature could have been an excuse for one of those days. So too could the dismissal of Martin O'Rourke.

"We could easily have capitulated there," agreed McDonnell. "Everything was going against them. But they demonstrated their determination and that experience - the likes of Paul McGrane, Stevie McDonnell, Ronan Clarke and Aidan O'Rourke: I wouldn't want to trust that job to young fellows.

"The team got a result today. But we had a lot of work to do. We gave possession away at times. We created opportunities in the first half and didn't take them. We dropped ball at crucial times. We found ourselves caught in corners and didn't come out of the corners the way I would like us to.

"There is loads there for us to work on and, to tell the truth, I would much prefer it that way. We are going into an Ulster final against Fermanagh, who are similar to Down, and today was good preparation in that respect.

"But my good friend Malachy (O'Rourke, Fermanagh coach), a college mate of mine, I am sure Malachy has plans and could well be thinking, you know, this might be Fermanagh's year."

Well. It was supposed to be Down's year too. Ross Carr refused the fig leaves of injured free-takers and all the rest: "Losing Liam was a factor but that might be papering over other cracks," he said. "I am not too sure how long the qualifiers are going but Down do not have a good track record. So we will soon see how much we have matured as a unit.

"I know we didn't get carried away with the Tyrone game and went into this focused but now we have to see how well we handle defeat."