Glass gamble comes off as Armagh pay the penalty

"I didn't do as I practised. I'm a gambling man."

An arm wrestle of a Clones contest saw both sides spurn chances to win in normal time and extra-time before the dreaded penalty shootout had to be utilised to decide a senior provincial football final for the first time.

In the end, goalkeeper Odhran Lynch was to prove Derry's hero as he saved from Rian O'Neill, whose nerveless 35-metre free had ensured the shootout, and then beat away the spot-kicks of Aidan Nugent and his opposite number Ethan Rafferty, before Ciaran McFaul's match-winning effort sparked Oak Leaf celebrations in the capacity 28,720 Clones crowd.

• Derry beat Armagh on penalties to win Ulster Final thriller
• Meenagh hails Derry character after 'rollercoaster' win

Derry captain Glass' finish past Armagh keeper Ethan Rafferty to the top right-hand corner was by far the most emphatic penalty of the nervy shootout but the Glen man spoke of his mental turmoil as he took the kick.

"I was going to go the other side of the net but I dunno.....my mind just froze and I was just 'I'm going to put it to the right now'," said Glass outside a mobbed Derry dressing-room at St Tiernach's Park.

"[It was] Literally just a second before I was kicking the ball. I saw Ethan Rafferty kept going across himself. He would have gone to my left on the previous penalties and that's where I was going to go.

"Thank God it just dipped underneath the crossbar. It paid off. I couldn't tell you what I was thinking."

Penalty shootouts can scramble the brains of the most gifted footballers.

"We practise penalties messing about," added Glass, when he was asked whether the team had prepared for a possible shootout.

"Gareth McKinless would probably think he's the best penalty taker in the country but he wasn't one of the men to put his hands up."

Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney saw his side go agonisingly close to the Orchard County's first Ulster title in 15 years but wasn't countenancing any blame being apportioned to the trio who failed to beat Lynch from the penalty spot.

'I could never take penalties myself' - McGeeney

McGeeney, whose players lost their All-Ireland quarter-final against Galway in a penalty shootout last summer, said his team's training sessions always involve a segment of taking spot-kicks but added that "it's a different story out there" in the white heat of a championship contest.

"I could never take penalties myself so it's very hard to have a go at anybody out there," said a reflective McGeeney.

"Every session we take penalties at. It's a thing now. You just have to get it. Penalties are a very funny thing. It's not a skills set. It's a pressure thing being able to deal with that.

"In fairness to the keeper, the three penalties that were hit [and missed], they were good penalties. They were in the corner. They were good saves. They weren't bad penalties. It's one of those things."

As for the suggestion that having a non-specialist goalkeeper in Rafferty between the posts hindered Armagh during the shootout, McGeeney wasn't buying it.

"He was a goalkeeper when he was young. That's why we have him in there. He mightn't have the experience behind him but then again, we get a lot of plusses out of him during game time."

Rory Grugan (right) had a chance to seal victory for Armagh in the closing seconds of normal time but his 40-metre effort from a mark dropped just short

The penalty shootout would never have happened had Armagh's Rory Grugan been able to nail a 40-metre 'mark' in the dying moment of second-half injury-time, with the Ballymacnab man's kick looking likely to creep over the bar before Lynch soared to pluck the ball out of the sky.

Asked what was going through his mind as Grugan stepped up to take the kick, Glass admitted: "I was thinking 'please miss'. Thank God he did to be honest.

"It was back and forth. Rian O'Neill to land that last point [in extra-time]. It was just a mental game. I don't know what it was like to watch. It was definitely enjoyable to play in."

Before this year's championship, Armagh coach and selector Ciaran McKeever had played down the importance of the Ulster Championship in advance of the new Super 16 All-Ireland series but Glass said Sunday's contest was proof of why the battle for the Anglo-Celt Cup must remain on the calendar.

"It was just a case of two heavyweights going at it today. That's why I love Ulster football and I don't want it to go away because it's extra special."

As for Derry's team's difficult build-up to Sunday's game with assistant boss Ciaran Meenagh in charge at Clones after Rory Gallagher's decision to step back from the role, Glass insisted that the squad had been able to maintain focus.

"We have mature leaders in [Brendan] Rogers and Chrissy [McKaigue and Benny Heron and myself and Shane [McGuigan] and we kept things as normal as possible. We had done the hard work."

McGuigan football's 'best forward at the moment'

In terms of individual displays, Glass said McGuigan's contribution of 0-7 was further evidence that the Slaughtneil man "is the best forward in the country at the minute".

"It's between him [David] Clifford and Con O'Callaghan. They are just freaks of nature.

"Shane is just full of confidence. He's oozing confidence. He said at half-time 'get the ball to me' and we did get the ball to him and he came up with the big plays.

"It shows the mental toughness he has and just the leadership and grabbing the game and saying 'I'm going to win it for us'.

"That's just Shane. He does that every night at training and implements it on the pitch."