Kieran McGeeney paid tribute to his "cool" players as they patiently manufactured two late scores to edge Tyrone in a classic Ulster SFC semi-final classic at Clones.
So often labelled the side that loses tight games, the Orchard County are getting into a habit of winning those sort of encounters having had a point to spare in last season's All-Ireland final against Galway.
That Croke Park clash had plenty of late drama and it was no different at St Tiernach's Park as Stefan Campbell levelled it up in the final minute before Armagh won the ball on the Tyrone restart and with the hooter long sounded, earned a free through Conor Turbitt, converted by Rory Grugan, to book a final date against Donegal or Down.
"It’s good, disappointed maybe the way the game sort of petered out for us, a lot of things seemed to go against us in those last 20 minutes," McGeeney told RTÉ Sport after the 0-23 to 0-22 success.
"But the boys kept their cool, which was a credit to them, to be able to take the scores.
"The two most important scores, Soupy (Campbell) and Turbo (Turbitt), fellas coming off the bench and haven’t had much game-time recently, so we’re really happy.
"They showed their coolness in the end but I thought over the 70 minutes we played pretty decent football and just maybe shouldn’t have gotten ourselves in that position at the end."
Armagh now enter their third Ulster final in a row as they attempt to end a 17-year wait for the Anglo Celt. Their last two losses famously were via penalty shoot-out defeats to Derry and Donegal respectively, but McGeeney hinted that the side’s primary focus still lies further down the line with returning players unlikely to be risked.
"We all play football, I love my Ulster championship medals, they were tough earned," said the Orchard County manager, booked by David Gough in the second half for kicking a flag – an act that cost his side a score.
"But I suppose things have shifted towards the super 16, even though they’re getting rid of those for some unknown reason. I’m not allowed to talk about that, I still can’t understand it.
"The provincial championships were pushed back to get it, but I still think it’s a mistake, but listen we have an Ulster championship final to look forward to.
"We’ll be going for it, but like everybody else we’ll not be taking any unnecessary chances with players if they’re not fit to do it."
And with suggestions this year’s Ulster provincial final will be played at Croke Park, McGeeney had a simple response when asked had he a preference - "none."
"We'll be going for it, but like everybody else we’ll not be taking any unnecessary chances with players if they’re not fit to do it."
At the other end of the Clones tunnel, Tyrone boss Malachy O’Rourke was left downhearted having come so close to taking a third team to a provincial final after Fermanagh and Monaghan.
"Mixed emotions really, very proud of the way the boys battled back towards the end.
"We weren’t in a great position, we were maybe six points behind, Armagh in fairness probably were the better team in the second half.
"The boys kept going to the end, they fought really hard and got back into the game.
"When we got on top we got a couple of really good scores and were working hard, but then we weren’t just able to punish them, turned over a few balls up front and allowed Armagh to come down.
"I wouldn’t say they stole it at the end, in fairness to them they came back really well, but we’re disappointed we weren't able to hang on."
Much of Tyrone’s downfall led to Armagh’s domination on their own kick-out – winning 23 from 24 – while they also snatched 11 of Tyrone’s 27 restarts.
"We had been doing well during the league, we did well against Cavan the last day but Armagh were able to get them short and we weren’t able to disrupt that really at all.
"On our own, we were forced to go 50-50 a lot on them so we came close to winning the game but we know an awful lot of things didn’t go out way either and there’s a lot of things we have to work on."
One noticeable theme of the day was Gough’s strict application of the steps rule, days after the GAA released a directive reinforcing some points of their rulebook.
O’Rourke, a former member of the Football Review Committee before taking the Tyrone post, said that he had no problem with such a move, but admitted that the timing did make it tricky.
"To be enforced so strictly in the middle of the championship when it hadn't been enforced in other games, it’s a wee bit hard to get used to."
Watch a Munster Hurling Championship double-header, Waterford v Clare and Cork v Tipperary, on Sunday from 1.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
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