All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers Round One/Derry 0-10 Armagh 0-9: There are few more poignant moments in life than the end of an era, and sport is no exception. Who knows if or when Armagh will ever regain their former football glory, but surely now it won't be with the familiar faces that brought it in the first place - not after their quite seismic championship exit in Clones yesterday.
Maybe hunger never runs out, nor spirit and belief, yet time does, and everything about the way Derry inflicted the defeat suggested this is closing time for Armagh, at least in the guise we've come to know them.
In any other circumstances the focus here would be on Derry's sensational victory. First they survived a typically smothering Armagh onslaught in the second half to level the scores close to the end. Then, with the clock in its final seconds, up popped corner forward Colin Devlin to fire over the winner. They thus drive on to meet Mayo in Round Two, all roads going forward.
Armagh's circumstances though make it different, and inevitably this result becomes a sort of retrospective. For sure they had their chances to win, and much more so than Derry in the end, but the very way in which they lost - their failure to close out a tight game - had all the hallmarks of a team at the end of their line.
"Nobody goes on forever," bellowed big Joe Kernan afterwards. "Losing any game is a sad day. We don't take defeats lightly in Armagh. If there are some changes, which I'm sure there will, that's life.
"But I can tell you there are good players coming through. If it takes another two or three years to rebuild, so be it. But there'll be better days for Armagh. That's the only guarantee we can give you at this time."
Kernan had widely hinted this would be his last year in charge - his last effort to repeat their historic All-Ireland win of five years ago. And yet there were no finality in his words, and perhaps the one thing that could drive them on is the thought of not going out like this.
"Well it would be very unfair to start talking about things like that now. Just look at what these players have done for Armagh over the past 10, 15 years. We're all disappointed, but give everyone a chance, don't nail them all to the cross because of today. Nobody gave more than these boys here, nobody.
"I'll sit down with the county in a month or so. But there'll be no madness today. Credit to Derry, who put pride back into their own jerseys. But I'm proud of my players."
Inside Kernan must have known Armagh would have won on practically any other day. They soon matched Derry's thundering pace and then gradually surpassed it, moving two points clear on 50 minutes, with two fine scores from Stephen Kernan, while limiting Derry's second half to just three Paddy Bradley frees, before Devlin's late winner, of course.
Oisín McConville had the first chance to win it for them with a 45-metre free, and substitute Paul Keenan misfired two even better chances closer to the death - but it was the cool boot of 22-year-old Devlin, who completed a last attacking run by defender Michael McGoldrick, who showered Derry in glory, and left Armagh cursed with disbelief.
That may have been a cruel way for Armagh to lose, yet Derry's win certainly wasn't without its merits. Kevin McCloy gave a masterclass display at full back, tormenting not just Diarmuid Marsden but the entire Armagh attack. Seán Marty Lockhart did a fair job of shackling Steven McDonnell and Bradley's burly presence up front has rarely been more valuable.
Kernan wasn't offering any excuses: "I don't really know what happened in the end. One minute we were in total control, and the next minute we were gone. In fairness Derry fought tooth and nail, but in fairness so did our players. I don't know how many easy chances we missed, and I'd be disappointed with that."
Derry deserve credit for they way they hung in when most other teams would faded. They had also contributed to their own precarious situation by gifting Armagh at least three points, two most notably in the first half when goalkeeper Shane O'Kane kicked straight into the hands of McDonnell - who promptly sent the ball back over the bar.
Derry in fact played most of the better football in the first half, and worthy of their 0-6 to 0-4 advantage at the break. And while the eventual victory drew frenzied celebrations from their share of the 16,496, manager Paddy Crozier called his players into a huddle, determined to keep things in perspective.
"I've seen this kind of celebrating before after matches," he said. "Like when we beat Tyrone last year, and a few people lost the run of themselves. We've won the one qualifying match. We did the same last year, and then Longford came out and beat us.
"But we took a lot of criticism in recent weeks, and showed a lot of character here. That was one difference there today. My message was just to play for the full 70 minutes, and they certainly did that. I knew they would fight to the very end. I kept saying to them they have to believe. Like if you win the last 15 minutes of any game you'll never be too far away"
DERRY: 1 S O'Kane; 2 M McGoldrick, 3 K McCloy, 6 SM Lockhart; 4 G O'Kane, 7 F McEldowney, 5 L Hinphey; 8 F Doherty, 9 J Conway; 22 B McGoldrick (0-1), 12 M Lynch (0-1), 26 P Murphy (0-1); 13 C Devlin (0-2), 14 P Bradley (0-5, four frees), 11 C Gilligan. Subs: 28 R Wilkinson for Gilligan (26 mins), 10 J Diver for Conway (53 mins), 20 J Keenan for Hinphey (60 mins), 19 G Donaghy for M Lynch (67 mins).
ARMAGH: 1 P Hearty; 2 E McNulty, 3 B Donaghy, 4 A Mallon; 5 A Kernan, 6 K McGeeney, 7 C McKeever; 8 K Toner, 9 P McGrane; 10 P McKeever, 11 S Kernan (0-2), 12 M O'Rourke; 13 S McDonnell (0-4, one 45), 14 D Marsden (0-1), 15 O McConville (0-2). Subs: 18 K Dyas for C McKeever (half-time), 21 J Lavery for Toner (39 mins), 20 P Keenan for P McKeever (59 mins)
Yellow cards: Derry - F McEldowney (14 mins), L Hinphey (28 mins), S M Lockhart (23 mins). Armagh - D Marsden (14 mins), A Kernan (65 mins). Red cards: None. Attendance: 16,496.
Referee: E Murtagh (Longford).
