Ulster SFC final: Kieran McGeeney savours Armagh’s glory day

With 70 minutes of an epic encounter gone, Armagh had to lift themselves for another 20 to get over the line.

Naturally, they would have preferred to have it done and dusted in normal time, but it wasn’t to be and there was no major task to lift the players once again.

“I just said ‘we’ve been here before’,” McGeeney said of his rallying call.

“This is not new to them so they know the difference between those 10 minutes [first half of extra time] and the first 10 minutes of a game and it’s importance, the coolness and composure.

“At eight points up [in normal time] they maybe thought they had it, but Monaghan has that habit in the last 20 minutes [to come back].

“It was squeaky bum time for the last five minutes and both teams have composure, but in extra time the boys did well.”

Given how this year’s Ulster Championship played out, beginning with Armagh coming through in extra time against Tyrone and Monaghan’s Lazarus-like recovery in the semi-final against Derry, it was always going to take a huge effort to decide the destination of the title.

Armagh just had that little bit more to get it done this time and perhaps it was those ghosts of Ulster finals past which ultimately served them well on this occasion.

“Those fellas have played in four [Ulster] finals and one point separated them in the three,” McGeeney noted.

“They’ve shown their quality, but Ulster has a lot of quality and you have to be at your best. It comes down to the small margins of frees or penalty kicks.

“Today they are on the right side of it and they went out in extra time not wanting to let it slip, so they deserve huge credit for that.”