Free-scoring Armagh were just too good for a wasteful but gritty Fermanagh side in brilliant sunshine before a crowd of 9,000 at Brewster Park.
But Fermanagh's man of the march Darragh McGurn hit a stunning 1-12 with six two pointers which made the scoreline a tad more respectable at the finish.
The winners were superior in all departments and only hit one wide in the entire first half as their opponents racked up a total of nine wides and four efforts into the Armagh keeper Ethan Rafferty’s grateful hands.
It was the wandering Rafferty who rose the biggest cheer of a one-sided first half with a mighty 60 metre two-pointer which drew a huge cheer from the huge Armagh attendance.
Fermanagh supporters voted with their feet in a very poor turnout an indication of how they felt about their side’s chances.
A well-drilled Armagh side broke repeatedly at frenetic pace and took their scores with aplomb, their first goal came from a palmed effort from Jason Duffy which effectively sealed the deal in the run up to the break as they led by 1-17 to 0-04.
They found the net again though Turbitt but Fermanagh tacked on 1-20 in a much improved second half.
The Erne men opened the scoring with a well worked point from Johnny Cassidy after Armagh were turned over in defence after two minutes.
But they also hit two wides in the same period as Darragh McMullen slotted over a fine two pointer to put Armagh into a 0-02 to 0-01 lead.
Jarly Óg Burns stretched that lead with a fine point before full-forward Conor Turbitt punished an indiscretion from Darragh McGurn by converting a two-pointer.
Meanwhile Garvan Jones hit two bad wides from scorable slots as Turbitt and the nippy Oisin Conaty tagged on two more Armagh points to put the visitors into a 0-07 to 0-01 lead.
McGurn responded with a well struck left-footed effort, but it was Armagh who looked by far the more menacing.
Jones converted a close in free for Fermanagh to make it a 0-09 to 0-03 match and then the large Armagh contingent nearly lifted the roof when Rafferty hoofed over a superb two-pointer free from almost 60 metres.
Jarly Óg Burns strode through for another point which was added to by Tiernan Kelly as Joe McDade responded for Fermanagh.
Turbitt and Conaty landed two more points before Duffy palmed the ball to the net after a good cross from Aaron McKay to put them into a 1-17 to 0-4 interval lead, Ross McQuillan with the final score with an outside-of-the-foot two-pointer.
A wasteful Fermanagh by that stage had nine wides and four efforts dropped short to their name.
Cian McConville opened the scoring for Armagh before Duffy and Turbitt quickly added to that tally to make it 1-20 to 0-04 by the 33rd minute.
McGurn responded with another fine two-pointer, but this was quickly negated by Armagh’s second goal when Turbitt palmed the ball to the net from a Burns cross to put Armagh ahead by 2-20 to 0-06 by the 46th minute
McGurn raised another orange flag and a single score as McConville responded with point for Armagh
Sub Oisin O’Neill then tagged on four points for Armagh as Erne sub Conor Love pointed for Fermanagh to leave Armagh leading by 2-26 to 0-14.
But a remarkable total of five two-pointers from McGurn and subs Conor O’Hanlon and Brandon Horan reduced the deficit to 2-26 to 0-22.
McGurn followed up with a well finished goal in a frenetic finish where Conaty and Jarly Óg Burns exchanged points with another McGurn two-pointer as the home side finished with a flourish.
Fermanagh: Sean McNally; Luke Flanagan, Oisin Smyth, Shane McGullion; Jonathan Cassidy (0-01) Ronan McCaffrey, Declan McCusker; Stephen McGullion, Conor McGee; Sean Cassidy, Ciaran Corrigan, Josh Largo Ellis (0-01); Joe McDade (0-01), Darragh McGurn (1-12, 5tpS) Garvan Jones (0-01,f).
Subs: Conor Love (0-01) for Sean Cassidy (29), Brandon Horan (0-02, 1tp)for Declan McCusker and Conor O’Hanlon (0-04, 1tp) for Garvan Jones (h-time), Mattie McDermott (0-01) for Ciaran Corrigan (46), Aogan Kelm for Conor McGee (54)
Armagh: Ethan Rafferty (0-02, 1tp); Paddy Burns, Aaron McKay, Peter McGrane; Ross McQuillan (0-01), Tiernan Kelly (0-03) Jarly Óg Burns; (0-04) Jason Duffy (1-01) Andrew Murnin; Tomas McCormack, Darragh McMullen (0-02, 1tp), Daniel Magee (0-01); Oisin Conaty (0-04), Conor Turbitt (1-07,1tp) Cian McConville (0-03,1f)
Subs: Ciaran Mackin for Andrew Murnin (43), Oisin O’Neill (0-04) for Conor Turbitt (46), Barry McCambrideg for Tomas McCormack (50) Ryan Duffy for Jason Duffy (59)
Referee: Barry Cassidy (Derry)
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