Armagh have the wit and wiles

Armagh have retained the Ulster title. Oisin McConville's 67th-minute free proved to be the decisive shot in yesterday's absorbing Bank of Ireland provincial final in Clones. Despite a late fight-back by Derry, Armagh deserved the result and the array of distinctions which accompany it. Only the third side in 25 years to retain the Ulster title, they are also the first from the county to achieve the distinction.

Had Derry's revival edged out the champions - as it looked as if it might - it would have been very hard luck on Armagh, who had to field without their most important forward Diarmuid Marsden. From the start, they looked to be calling the shots tactically, and, throughout the 70 minutes, their forwards carried more menace than the predictably sluggish opposing attack.

Yet Derry were despondent afterwards. Despite the subdued performance and the failure to fire in a number of key sectors, they knew they had come very close and, even after McConville's winning point, Derry had three opportunities to equalise, none of which were taken. The defeat will place question marks over the futures of a number of players.

Already the first casualty has been announced with Eamonn Coleman stepping down as manager after two years of a second term in charge. The implications for some of those who played on his All-Ireland winning team in 1993 remain to be seen.

From the start, Derry seemed ill-at-ease with Armagh's policy of revolving forwards around the attack in what looked a cross between chess and musical chairs. Derry had been expecting this, but their disorientation showed as Armagh used a two-man inside-line to maximise their advantages of pace and scoring ability.

This showed through strongly in Steven McDonnell's 14th-minute goal. When well-placed by Barry O'Hagan, the corner forward ripped through on goal and finished immaculately into the top right-hand corner. This set the pattern for the match as it overturned Derry's early lead so that they trailed 0-4 to 1-2 and they were never to regain the scoring initiative.

The clever movement of the McEntees, John and Tony, was complemented by the direct threat of Cathal O'Rourke's probing and the pace of McConville and McDonnell. At the other end, the half backs were in flying form and countered Derry's half forwards comfortably.

Early signals hadn't been all bad for Derry. In attack Enda Muldoon - despite carrying a slight hamstring injury - was threatening great things and scored one and got fouled for another of Derry's first four points. Johnny McBride scored two from play but the overall impact wasn't spectacular as they also dropped balls short and lacked conviction going forward.

Conversely there were alarm bells ringing. Despite some good movement off the ball, Derry's goalkeeper Eoin McCloskey didn't take advantage and instead of directing kickouts to the free man, pumped them down the middle, where Anthony Tohill, not looking wholly recovered from his hip injury, wasn't the emphatic influence Derry had been expecting and was well marked by Paul McGrane.

There was also the beginning of a suspicion that Derry had been overly encouraged by the early exchanges between Muldoon and Ger Reid. Reid finished strongly yesterday but overall Muldoon scored two points and was fouled for two other converted frees. In fairness to both players, Derry's readiness to freight high ball in on top of the Armagh square meant that Reid had to deal with a large proportion of the Derry attacks but, equally, that Muldoon frequently had more than his marker keeping him company as the ball dropped.

In the early stages, Derry's support play was poor and in the 26th minute, Muldoon skinned Reid only to find himself being rapidly shut down and no one moving in to exploit the empty spaces.

This deficiency was addressed at halftime with Ronan Rocks and Joe Brolly coming on for the right side of the Derry attack, Eamonn Burns and Paddy Bradley. If the desire was to move up an attacking gear, it wasn't fulfilled, as by the time Derry got on to the scoreboard again, Armagh had landed two frees from Cathal O'Rourke to double their interval lead of two points, 1-6 to 0-7.

More worryingly, each of those points had been followed in jig-time by wides from Dermot Heaney and Niall McCusker. Tohill then missed a 45-metre free and the sense was that the match was swinging irrevocably towards the champions. Tohill did get a chance to atone within seconds as a free for a foul on Heaney was talked in to about 20 metres by an unwisely disputatious defence.

If Tohill's form was below-par, his partner Heaney had a fine match. Given the expansive brief posed by having to mark John McEntee, Heaney did his own thing and as well as getting through a heap of work, was integrally involved in four of his team's points.

During the third quarter Armagh opened the throttle with points from O'Hagan and John McEntee to extend the lead to five, 111 to 0-9. It could have been more had McDonnell taken his point in the 47th minutes after beating Gary Coleman instead of trying to winkle a goal out of the opening. Instead of building on this advantage, Armagh appeared to fall back on defence.

Derry chipped away at the lead and entering the last 10 minutes the margin was down to three. In truth it looked enough. In the 60th minute, McBride - the one forward to deliver in scoring terms - kicked an horrendous wide after Kieran McKeever had created a good opening. Derry looked a spent force.

Yet, within two minutes, McBride hit back after Brolly and Rocks had set him up in front of goal. With a packed defence in front of him, he still had plenty to do but somehow made the space and cracked in the equalising goal.

Suddenly the entire picture changed. It looked as if Armagh would now regret leaning on the ropes. Derry had momentum but the champions didn't panic. Tony McEntee brought off a terrific block on Seamus Downey and the defence held firm. Derry wouldn't score again.

Even McConville's free didn't seem the end of the matter and Derry did come back, but McKeever shot wide and in a last throw of the dice, Tohill's 50-metre free fell wide of the right-hand post. Nerve-wracking for Armagh, but presumably all the sweeter for that.