Speaking in victory is always a joy but facing the media, even the local media, can be a pretty tough gig at the best of times. 

But the soft-spoken Shane McGullion has always made himself available to speak in sunshine and shadow.

However, McGullion was deeply disappointed that Armagh’s three killer goals resulted mainly from Erne errors.

“Those three goals were real killers and they all came from our own mistakes and that is the really disappointing thing about it.

“We took the ball into contact, and they just turned us over and really punished us.

“But a team of that quality will always make you pay for your mistakes.”

And even though there was a huge gap when Armagh led by 3-04 to 0-02 at the break, McGullion and his comrades decided to “give it a real go in the second half".

They certainly improved in the scoring stakes matching Armagh’s total of seven points while never really looking like causing the much superior Orchard County any real bother.

“We tried to push up and improve our forward play as it was pretty much non-existent in the first half.

“But they are very powerful physically and kept us at arm’s length and it was very hard to get even a goal back against them to narrow the gap.

“They are just a real quality side.”

But there were two key turning points in the opening half which did not help Fermanagh as McGullion acknowledged.

Firstly, his clubmate Oisin Smyth had a point-blank shot for a goal superbly saved on the line by Aaron McKay.

And then Ultan Kelm was given a black card for dragging down Andrew Murnin who had a good goal chance but Kelm had little option.

And Armagh hit two goals in three minutes when Kelm was in the sin bin.

“On another day Oisin’s chance was in the net and that was the start we would have needed.

“You need that wee bit of luck for things to go your way in the Ulster championship and unfortunately it did not go for us.

“But really we coughed up too many chances to them and you can’t hang it all on just one mistake.”

When asked about Ultan Kelm getting the black card, McGullion felt that Kelm had little choice but to take down the marauding Murnin.

“Look, our goals were wide open, so he had little option and it was unfortunate that he paid the consequence for it.”

But for all their dominance in the first half, Armagh did not look like scoring a goal in the second half.

“That’s true but they were still very tight at the back and we just could not get through them.

“They had the damage done in the first half and while we tightened up and got more tackles in, in the second half, unfortunately, it was just not enough.”

On the plus side, McGullion was enthused to have Jonny Cassidy and Darragh McGurn back in action after both joined the fray in the second half.

“Yes, it is always good to have players of their calibre back on the pitch.

“We will need them for the Tailteann Cup.

“We will now have a few weeks hard work preparing for the Tailteann Cup.

“We still have a quality squad and we were most unlucky not to stay in Division Two.

“We had a good win over Cavan and we also feel that we have the quality to give the Tailteann Cup a good rattle.”

He concluded: “The squad has grown and we have players coming off the bench and Fionan O’Brien has done that and is nailing down a place and is a really good player.”