Armagh won the toss and opted to go first. They sent forward their best player, Rian O’Neill, to take their first penalty in the shootout against the defending champions Derry.
Over 90 minutes of end-to-end action in front of 28,720 fans failed to separate the sides in St Tiernach’s Park, Clones.
Sunday’s game had to be played to a finish and the teams spread out across the width of the pitch as the shootout unfolded.
Read more: Ulster Senior Football Final: Armagh vs Derry drew average of over 240k viewers on RTÉ
O’Neill had the chance to strike first for the Orchard County, but his effort was saved by Odhran Lynch. It was a huge psychological blow for Armagh, who missed two further penalties with Lynch making brilliant stops to deny Aidan Nugent and Ethan Rafferty.
It was a case of deja vu for Armagh following their heartbreaking defeat to Galway in last year’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final.
Speaking after Sunday’s loss, Kieran McGeeney stressed that practising penalties is now part of Armagh’s routine at every session.
"Every session we take penalties,” stated McGeeney.
“It's a thing now. You just have to get it. Penalties are a funny thing. It's not like a skillset.
“It's a pressure thing being able to deal with that. There are so many permutations.
“In fairness to the keeper (Odhran Lynch), the three penalties that were hit were good penalties round the corner. They were good saves. They weren't bad penalties.
"(Ethan Rafferty) was a goalkeeper when he was young and that's why we have him in there.
“He has done goalkeeping. He might not have the experience behind him but then we get a lot of plusses out of him during game time.”
He added: “It’s tough. We played really well today, made a few mistakes and that, they played really well – thought it was a great game for the neutrals.
"Intelligent game of football from both teams, a lot of good scores in the clutch, small mistakes here and there. There wasn’t much between us, I suppose it would take something to separate us.”
While McGeeney was understandably crestfallen after watching his charges lose on penalties, he wasn’t about to use it as any sort of an excuse.
Armagh have three games in Group Two against Westmeath, Tyrone and Galway to try and progress to the knockout stages of the All-Ireland Championship and McGeeney says his side must push on and learn to grind out results against the top sides.
“When you’re in a condensed season everybody’s gonna look for something,” added the Armagh boss.
“It’s one of those things, what do you do? It’s the same rules for everybody, you just have to take it on the chin.
“Even with the league this year, we got a lot of stick, Galway beat us by a last-minute goal, Kerry getting two frees at one end and us dropping the ball to win by a point.
“We were close in every game, probably should have won every game we played in. The thin margins at the very top and we have five or six teams at the top that are really quality, they all play a very similar system, 15 behind the ball, double-sweepers, break at pace and it’s a tough game to break down.
“Small decisions can go your way or go against you. It’s been a decent year for us but you want to push on, you want to win the big things because that’s what you’re remembered for.
"It’s tough when you lose, that’s two games when you’re really as good as the team you’re playing, but penalties are penalties.”
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