KEVIN CASSIDY: A final for the ages

AS I sit down to write this week’s piece, I’m struggling in that I actually don’t know where to begin. I think I can speak for most when I say that was probably one of the best Ulster finals we have ever witnessed.

If I’m being 100 per cent honest towards the end of the game, I felt that it would be unfair on either teams to lose. Perhaps another day in the sun might have been a fairer outcome.

From the very first whistle, this blockbuster had everything that you would want from a game of football. Skill, drama, intensity, mistakes and atmosphere. You name it, we had the lot last Saturday evening.

Looking at the game from a tactical point of view, I thought that at the beginning of the match Armagh got their tactics slightly wrong. They offered Donegal the short kick-out. When you do that, once Donegal have possession of the ball, it’s virtually impossible to take it off them.

Secondly, up front, I thought Armagh lacked any real plan when going forward. It just looked like it was a case of as they’d play it as they saw it and hopefully opportunities would arise.

For Donegal, Murphy and Gallen were on fire early doors, which helped settle the nerves and to be honest Donegal looked quite comfortable.

For me, the change came once Armagh started to apply serious pressure on the Donegal kickouts. This gave Armagh the opportunity to attack Donegal on the front foot and again. On another day, Armagh could have had two or three goals.

The game ebbed and flowed with some very exciting passages of play. There were some amazing score taking from both sides.

Going into the game, we knew that would be very little to separate these teams. At one stage, Donegal went seven points ahead. Normally a seven-point deficit against a Jim McGuinness team means that the game is over.

Not anymore. With these new rules, you cannot control the situation from start to finish anymore. At one stage on the sideline, Jim was looking around at his backroom team pleading for words of enthusiasm. At that stage, Armagh steamrolled their way back into the contest.

At that point in the game there is very little he, or any other coach, can do in that situation. I think these new rules give us that. They take away the ability to control a game from the sideline.

This is how it should be, players decide what happens in games and that’s refreshing to as in my opinion.

Both teams emptied the bench and both sets of substitutes had a massive impact on the game so that will please both teams as they head for the All-Ireland series.

There is no doubt that this is another massive blow to Armagh but, as we have seen in the past, they have that ability to bounce back. I still expect to see them again further down the line.

From a Donegal point of view, they will be thrilled to have won the game but now the big question is whether or not they can maintain those standards for the rest of the competition.

Before I go, I just want to touch on the scenes at the end of the game. Listen, in football, these sorts of things happen.

At the end of the game tempers and emotions are high, so I hope it’s just left at that now. I don’t want to see any suspensions coming Armagh’s way. If that happens, then two or three Donegal men will suffer the same fate. Let’s just look ahead to what promises to be a very exciting couple of weeks.