It was a measure of this epic Bank of Ireland semi-final that we waited until seven minutes short of three hours before the decisive blow was struck. It was not any of the seven goals or 52 points which Armagh and Kerry had racked up over the course of their two matches and injury time.

With Armagh trailing by just two points, 1-14 to 2-13, Oisin McConville was on hand to pounce on a ball broken by extra-time replacement Ger Houlahan. Saturday afternoon had been McConville's day. After a couple of unconvincing outings, the Crossmaglen forward had delivered his best championship performance in an Armagh jersey.

Already he had 1-9 on his scorecard and the shot that could have pushed Armagh back in front was confidently struck. But somehow Declan O'Keeffe managed to save from point-blank range. In that instant the Ulster champions' spirited challenge was broken. And Kerry doubled their lead within a minute thanks to wonderfully taken points from Maurice Fitzgerald and Dara O Se.

If O'Keeffe provided the turning point for Kerry's victory, Michael Francis Russell carried the team to that stage. The Killorglin corner forward had been the county's outstanding forward in the drawn match and this eminence applied to an even greater extent on Saturday. Not alone did Russell finish with a tally of 2-3 but his scores were well timed. His first goal saved Kerry in ordinary time and his second set up the extra-time victory which sees them into the All-Ireland final to face Galway at championship level for the first time in 16 years.

And aside from the individual contributions, Paidi O Se was heartened by the resolve shown by Kerry. At critical junctures, they responded to adversity by rescuing the match and then winning it in extra time.

For Armagh it was a depressing day.

Their fatal flaw of withdrawing into defence at the slightest hint of a lead unhinged them in the second half of normal time. Having ridden out a first half dominated territorially by Kerry, Armagh hit hard in the closing minutes to lead by four points, 1-7 to 06.

John McEntee added to that lead six minutes after the interval and Armagh had the winning of the match. Instead of taking the fight to a crumbling Kerry, the Ulster champions fell back to try to strangle the match. In vain, partly because Kerry's forwards are too dangerous for such tactics but also because in the ground conceded, the rest of the team - centrefield and half backs - was slowly able to build confidence and a sector firmly in Armagh's control was taken over by emboldened Kerrymen.

If Armagh's tactics were found wanting in the second half, Kerry's had been similarly deficient in the first. Strangely - given the torrid opening he had given Ger Reid in the drawn match - Dara O Cinneide was moved out to centre forward and Aodhan MacGearailt switched in to the edge of the square where he made little enough impact on Reid.

MacGearailt was replaced by Liam Hassett at the end of the first half and left little doubt about his best position when reintroduced in extra time on the half-forward line. Hassett made life more difficult for Reid but the full back's team-mates weren't making things any easier by conceding great tracts of space around the middle.

Paddy Downey, the former GAA correspondent of this newspaper, observed that Armagh could make a fortune from the EU in set-aside funds because of all the unused ground in their attack. And that was just in the first half.

Armagh had gambled on the use of Diarmuid Marsden from the start but he didn't look fully fit. After a useful first half, he faded and his lack of sharpness told on the hour when he failed to capitalise on a chance set up by Kieran McGeeney. Kerry's injury-afflicted star, forward Maurice Fitzgerald, came on after 40 minutes but didn't have the same impact he managed in the drawn match. He delivered a killer ball to Russell for the first goal and kicked a fine point but in general, wasn't as threatening as two weeks ago.

In contrast to the drawn match, Kerry didn't get off to a flying start and the match settled into a tit-for-tat scoring pattern. McConville then turned the match on its head in the space of a few minutes. This intervention didn't have an encouraging prelude. In the 29th minute, despite having half a step on Seamus Moynihan, McConville showed little conviction in pursuit of a ball and was dispossessed by the Kerry captain.

In the three minutes leading to the break, McConville scored 1-2, the second point a super score with Moynihan twisted like a corkscrew before his marker drifted the ball over.

Within a minute he was sent in on goal after some intelligent running by Marsden and hit a shot so hard that it came out off the stanchion - creating the illusion that it had struck the post before the umpire reached for the green flag.

There was time for one more piece of business - an ominous portent for Armagh. Cathal O'Rourke missed a kickable free, an omission he was to repeat twice in the second half. At the time it didn't look as costly as it would appear.

Armagh remained in the lead until the 63rd minute with the addition of only one point by McConville. Then with the margin down to two, Russell struck. Fitzgerald drifted in behind Andrew McCann and placed the ball for Russell who, though surrounded by defenders, somehow managed to check and roll the ball unerringly into the one unguarded space on goal.

A McConville free a minute later tied the match but there was a feeling that Armagh were losing momentum although they survived a further exchange of points before Brian White blew it up after only two seconds of injury time.

Five minutes into the third period, O Cinneide crowned a hard-working display by slipping Russell in for a thumping finish and a five-point lead. By the middle of the additional period, Armagh had trimmed the deficit to two and the match remained on the edge until O'Keeffe's intervention cleared the road and Kerry drove for home.