Armagh 3-17 Donegal 0-16: Jarly Og Burns pays tribute to long suffering Orchard faithful

"I suppose this is what the Armagh fans have been waiting for for a long time."

Jarly Og Burns will never utter truer words.

The Silverbridge man has just been nabbed by the BBC for a post-match interview on the St Tiernach's Park pitch from the clutches of delirious Armagh fans.

Armagh haven't just beaten Donegal. They've demolished them and while Rian O'Neill deservedly won the match of the match award with his scoring haul of 1-7 only telling half the tale of his stunning display, Burns has also produced one of the great performances of an already highly-regarded inter-county career.

There was something in the air when we arrived in Clones. Armagh voices to be precise.

The folk in the orange jerseys had annexed the market town in county Monaghan on this particularly Sunday.

It really was a case of the lesser spotted Donegal fan. I did eventually run into two on Fermanagh Street after getting there ridiculously early to avoid the traffic following the Ulster Final experience a fortnight ago.

Despite being a Donegal native, I'm strictly neutral when it comes to professional duties, but I played along with the Tir Chonaill sense of foreboding as we glanced at the Armagh hordes.

It must have been close to a 10-1 ratio of Armagh fans to the paltry Donegal turnout inside St Tiernach's Park.

A Donegal hack whispered a tale in my ear that scarcely more than a dozen tickets had been sold in a couple of the county's most renowned clubs, with people clearly not liking what they had seen in the Ulster Final defeat by Derry.

To my eyes at least, the Orchard faithful had probably even outnumbered the home fans in Ballybofey seven weeks ago but despite that bitter disappointment, they weren't for giving up on their players as they thronged Clones after witnessing the home victory over the All-Ireland champions last weekend.

"Armagh fans have always been brilliant," added Burns.

"They just needed something to get them going and thankfully we gave them that something today.

"Even from hearing people (out there on the pitch), they are all looking forward to getting to Croke Park."

And why shouldn't they look forward to it because of the evidence of this display, Armagh will give it a good rattle against Galway at Croker - or wherever else that game is played in a fortnight's time.

Armagh may not beat the Tribesmen but they won't be disgraced in the manner that, one has to admit, Donegal were on Sunday.

What made Donegal's capitulation so abject was the fact that that they had utterly dominated the 20 minutes of action that had followed Rory Grugan's stunning goal after only 10 seconds.

Donegal played beautifully during that period, as they mixed a pacey counter-attacking game, with accurate kick passing into the danger zone, in an apparent sea change from their inhibited efforts against Derry.

Ryan McHugh was getting on the ball and seemed to be building up a similar head of steam to the unstoppable force he had been against the Orchard men seven weeks ago, and Ciaran Thompson appeared to be justifying his selection in place of Jamie Brennan by kicking a glorious point to put Donegal 0-9 to 1-2 up after 21 minutes.

Armagh looked in big trouble at that stage but inevitably, O'Neill was the man who turned the tide as he somehow found room to squeeze a snapshot over the bar from the right flank in the 22nd minute before a silly foul by Caolan McGonagle gifted him a tap over free moments later.

It was during that period that Armagh - according to Kieran Donaghy on their own initiative out on the pitch - started to squeeze up on Shaun Patton's kickout.

Boy did that yield dividends with Caolan Ward having to clear a Stefan Campbell goal chance off the line - with O'Neill nailing the 45 - before another botched short restart by the Donegal keeper resulted in him conceding a penalty and being black carded, as the man of the match coolly blasted the spot kick past stand-in keeper McGonagle.

Within nine minutes, Armagh's four-point deficit had been turned into a three-point lead. Donegal had lost their composure. Bonner had even temporarily whipped off McBrearty as sub keeper Michael Lynch was introduced to fill the gap left by Patton's 10-minute absence. McBrearty didn't look one bit happy as he made his way to the dugout.

Patton, and McBrearty, were back on the field within a minute of the restart but the second half was to prove a vision of hell for Donegal football.

With only 46 minutes gone, Armagh supporters were already cheering their team's keep-ball tactics after the Orchard team's four-point interval lead had become six following two more superb scores from play from Burns and O'Neill.

A few us thought it was a bit early to be running down the clock but we were soon shut up as Campbell fired over a towering effort to put seven between the sides.

It took Donegal a whole 18 minutes to register their first score of the second half as a Murphy free was greeted in total silence.

The pain didn't abate for Donegal in the remaining 21 minutes of action as Stephen Sheridan slotted Armagh's third goal with O'Neill's clever pass to Ben Crealey unlocking the opposition's defence.

But Armagh knew how Donegal were feeling.

"They really did embarrass us the last day," recalled Burns.

"It really did hurt. After a good league to give that performance wasn't good enough. We did feel pressure coming here today to rectify that and thank God we did that."