All-Ireland SFC semi-final Armagh v Tyrone : Probably the only real surprise about this result wasn't that Tyrone won, but the way they won. Once Steven McDonnell tucked away his goal with about 10 minutes to go it looked like Armagh were home and dry.

Instead Tyrone found the inner strength and self-belief to get over the finish line first. They used that extra bit of youthful pace and for the first time this season showed up a certain fatigue in Armagh, who in the closing minutes made some uncharacteristic mistakes, spilling the ball and falling short of the clinical use of possession that has been their trademark so often in the past. That comes from fatigue, and perhaps the sign of a team that has been on the road too long.

Still, coming into those final few minutes Armagh would have been deserving winners. They controlled the majority of play at midfield and were picking up a lot of breaking ball. One thing they are sure to regret is that for all the possession they didn't convert it into the necessary scores.

McDonnell did come through with that tremendous goal, but himself and Ronan Clarke will ultimately be disappointed with their overall return. A lot of that though was because of the Tyrone full back line, and particularly Joe McMahon, who stood up extremely well to all the pressure.

Still, when it came to that final quarter I thought the Tyrone players would tire more. Instead it was Armagh. But I wouldn't agree with the move to take off Kieran McGeeney. He's been such a leader for this team over the years, and his mental character is still crucial. I don't think it worked in their favour at all to be missing their captain and lieutenant.

But I wouldn't blame Joe Kernan for that move either because pace was clearly vital at that stage as well, and it appeared as if Tyrone were getting the edge. In the end they lifted their game over the final five minutes or so, and Seán Cavanagh was central to that. His determination to keep going until the finish was a definite advantage when some Armagh legs finally began to tire. I would say he drove that last revival, and was one of the few players still going flat out in the final surge for the finish.

It was an incredibly intense game throughout. Both teams deserve full credit for the respect they showed each other, but also the knowledge of each other. They sustained that great effort throughout while always playing with spirit and sportsmanship.

Obviously it was a relatively low-scoring game, but it was always going to be a difficult game for the forwards. Players had a split second on the ball before they were closed down, so space was at a premium.

Once Armagh started using their long ball to greater effect you could see McDonnell and Clarke finally bearing fruit. It took a while, but the introduction of John and Tony McEntee helped considerably, and eventually that brought Armagh into a match-winning position.

What Tyrone still had was great adaptability. Peter Canavan clearly helped as an attacking force and was backed by the likes of Ryan McMenamin and Conor Gormley. So overall Tyrone were slightly more efficient in attack through Stephen O'Neill and Owen Mulligan.

Mickey Harte needs to be careful about how he handles this victory because some of the scenes at the end yesterday were more suited to an All-Ireland final. Harte will need to refocus now on the build-up to the actual final. It has the makings of a classic, but he knows too there are areas he will need to improve on.

Midfield is an obvious starting point. Brian Meenan wasn't up to the challenge and it was probably asking too much of him anyway. Luckily Tyrone have great strength on the bench and that got them home. And of course Harte has shown no fear when it comes to redesigning teams.

As for Armagh, I don't think it's the end of an era or anything as drastic as that. The fact is they did everything yesterday bar win the game. They do have some great underage talent coming through, and I expect they'll be in the top two or three teams in the country for quite a while yet.

The last word on both teams has to be discipline, which they both stood by so impressively. The game was hard and fair and they both left Croke Park having created a tremendous advertisement for Gaelic football.