Much life left in these old Armagh legs

Ulster SFC Final/ Armagh 1-9 Donegal 0-9: When this Armagh team are truly old and are waving at the public in their Sunday suits during half-time parades on future All-Ireland days, it will be fascinating to observe how they are remembered.

While the honour of being regarded as the shining team of this period in the game may - just - elude Armagh, there is a strong argument that they rank among the most influential and important teams in the modern era.

Yesterday in Croke Park was a celebration of endurance, of the iron-clad certainty of a team relying on their own worth and craft and arrogance, of a faith developed on rainy evenings underneath the bright lights of the British army base in Crossmaglen and on many raw and painful afternoons here in Dublin. It was, quite simply, the manifestation of a team who have forgotten how to lose games that are any way winnable. And that is the hallmark of greatness.

Yesterday, against a young Donegal team on the cusp of a glittering future, they reaffirmed their ambition of capturing the second All-Ireland title that will, at last, force the establishment to doff a cap across the Border.

In beating Donegal for the fifth time in five years - and in a third Ulster final - they proved beyond question they have been the most hungry and disciplined team in what was a period of ravenous appetite for the game across that troubled belt of land.

Low-scoring and absorbing and characterised by a hectic display of yellow card waving by Michael Monaghan, this was a worthy conclusion to a five-year private war between Armagh and Donegal, the landlord and tenants of the Ulster scene.

As he has done in countless big games down the years, Kieran McGeeney figured out the hardwiring of this match and then began to dictate it, subtly and invincibly. There was one unforgettable cameo late on when Donegal, still seeking an answer to Paul McGrane's fatal goal, came tearing down field in their flowing, high-risk way.

Karl Lacey, who had a truly magnificent hour on Stephen McDonnell, took possession deep into the Armagh half, running and searching, searching for a free man but finding only McGeeney waiting for him at the end, crouched and almost nursing the ball away as the young Four Masters man collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

With McGeeney in dominant mode, other senior men took their cue. John McEntee hammered two typically understated points. McGrane's 37th minute goal, when he rolled around Brendan Boyle and found, to his astonishment, the heart of the Donegal defence wide open, was a killer score. Ronan Clarke gave Donegal full back Paddy Campbell his most trying hour.

And Francie Bellew, fooled for a glorious early score from his old foe Adrian Sweeney, grew and grew as the game got hot and ended the game with that inscrutable reputation more handsomely intact than ever.

Local fears that Donegal would suffer for the absence of talismanic young forward Michael Doherty proved correct. The team dropped five shots into Paul Hearty's hands in the first half and just at the point when he would liked to have bring on Sweeney, with 20 minutes remaining and the game at 0-8 to 1-8, Brian McIver was forced to call the exhausted Dungloe man ashore.

Sweeney came close to having a masterful game but was once more frustrated by Bellew and around him, Donegal's skilled forward unit never really fired. Christy Toye never fully recovered from a shamefully late hit by Armagh centre back McKeever and Michael Hegarty was a disappointingly peripheral figure. Unable to get their sleek, passing game motoring, too often they resorted to long, high ball that was bread and butter to Bellew, Justin McNulty and the excellent Andy Mallon or else they returned to old habits and went running down blind alleys.

Although the broad Martin O'Rourke worked like a wrecking ball through Donegal's half-back line, the challengers' defensive unit was impressive, their sharpness and natural ball-playing skills coming to the fore.

And it was the bravery of Eamon McGee, Lacey, Barry Dunnion and the under-rated Barry Monaghan that took the game to Armagh during a gripping last 10 minutes when they simply refused to allow the champions to coast to another victory.

Afterwards, there was a line of thought that Armagh were "there for the taking". But it would be wrong for the Donegal men to chastise themselves on that count. Joe Kernan's teams are masters at finding a way home.

And although they were exposed when Hegarty, to his eternal credit, drew three Armagh defenders before finding Stephen McDermott with a perfect pass in injury-time, the Glenfin man still had an awful lot to do to find the net.

A draw would have been a fair reward but life against the footballers of Armagh has nothing to do with fairness. Nothing comes easy. Nothing is given up easy. Armagh are champions of Ulster. As they say on election night: Ulster - No Change.

ARMAGH: P Hearty; A Mallon (0-1), F Bellew, E McNulty; A Kernan, C McKeever, P Duffy; K McGeeney, P McGrane (1-0); M O'Rourke, J McEntee (0-2), M Mackin; S McDonnell (0-1), R Clarke (0-3), O McConville (0-2 free). Subs: P McKeever for M Mackin (51 mins). Bookings: McGeeney (4 mins), McDonnell (16 mins), McKeever (16 mins), McGrane (37 mins), McNulty (44 mins), A O'Rourke for Duffy (72 mins).

DONEGAL: P Durcan; K Lacey, P Campbell, N McGee; E McGee (0-1), B Monaghan, B Dunnion (0-1); N Gallagher, B Boyle; C Toye, M Hegarty (0-1, free), C Bonner; R Kavanagh (0-1), C Dunne (0-1 free), A Sweeney (0-3, two frees). Subs: C Kelly (0-1) for Dunne, D Diver for Boyle (51 mins), S McDermott for Sweeney (57 mins). Bookings: Monaghan (9 mins), Sweeney (20 mins), McGee (20 mins), Dunnion (34 mins), Kavanagh (36 mins), Boyle (48 mins), Diver (63 mins), Lacey (60 mins).

Referee: M Monaghan (Kildare).