Joe Kernan reckons he can make it from his house in Crossmaglen to Croke Park in under an hour. That journey home last night must have felt a lot longer as the Armagh manager reflected on what might have been.

Yet in the immediate aftermath of yesterday's defeat to Tyrone he was both solemn and gracious. Hard luck on our boys, fair play to Tyrone.

"Of course the players in there are gutted," said Kernan, "But they couldn't give any more. I think the Armagh people can be so proud of the enjoyment they've given them over the last few years. And today in particular, because they gave it everything they had.

"Typical of these two teams it was always going to go down to the wire. Maybe we just didn't finish it off the way we normally do. But the character of this team is never in question. They keep coming back, and keep giving it more. A lot of that game was about keeping the head the whole time, and doing the sensible things well.

"Unfortunately we didn't do that the whole time, and gave the ball away a few times towards the end when we could have finished the game off.

"Maybe we did play better in some of the overall play, but if we'd played badly and won then I'd be a lot happier standing here now. We had a few chances at the end that we didn't take, and that's life. But I can't praise my players enough. They've had a long season and yet kept going back to the well and giving more."

Armagh clearly had the momentum when Steven McDonnell tucked away his goal just before the hour mark, but they couldn't quite sustain it.

"The next score was always vital after that and we didn't get it," added Kernan. "That put us on the back foot again. The goal did have a big bearing but we needed more with it."

Taking off Kieran McGeeney a few minutes later was another obvious talking point: "It was purely tactical, because we wanted to add a bit more pace to the half-back line. But that didn't lose us the match. We gave the ball away a few times and they just punished us."

Kernan has been on the go for four years as Armagh manager, but for now he's not looking any further down the road.

"Look, the future of Armagh football is great. We've some good young players coming through, and we've a good minor panel. A few of the older heads mightn't be here next year but the future of this team is 100 per cent safe.

"I'll take a bit of a rest, and make no hasty decisions. I've been there for four years, which is a long time. So you'll have to ask yourself do you want to go through it all again, and I'll do that at the right time."