DOWN exited the Ulster Championship but forced Armagh to dig deep on their way to victory in Sunday's semi-final at Clones.

The favourites were going for their seventh title in nine years and were 1-5 to 0-5 up at the interval thanks to Stephen Kernan getting their solitary goal in the 26th minute.

In the second half Aidan Carr scored a number of accurate frees to get Down within a point of Armagh following Martin O'Rourke's sending off.

Armagh made the better start but spurned two gilt-edged goal opportunities. Charlie Vernon went for the net but his low shot was saved by Down keeper Brendan McVeigh.

Brendan Donaghy, who replaced the injured half-back Aaron Kernan at the last minute, chose to fist over when a three-pointer looked on.

His effort added to earlier scores from play which had the Orchard County 0-3 to 0-1 in front by Stephen Kernan and Ronan Clarke, Daniel Hughes getting Down's opener.

Clarke and Steven McDonnell scored further points to stretch Armagh's advantage with Aidan Carr landing a free in reply for Down.

Armagh's dominance was evident in the 26th minute as their goal came from a fine piece of play, a move from deep ending with Stephen Kernan checking inside Damien Rafferty to shoot past McVeigh.

There was a further blow for Down when centre half-back Liam Doyle limped off with a knee injury but Carr added two more frees which saw them claw the scores back to 1-5 to 0-5 by half-time.

A second yellow card offence saw O'Rourke dismissed when he fouled Damien Rafferty and, although Paddy McKeever landed a free for Armagh, a further three from Carr meant Down were just a point behind at 1-6 to 0-8.

Down looked to have everything going in their favour but the strength of seasoned campaingers like front men McDonnell and Clarke saw their opponents secure a four-point success.

In front of 31,000 at Clones Armagh's experience told and now they will face Fermanagh in the final on 20 July.

Although they failed to reproduce the fired-up performance which toppled holders Tyrone, Down will feel they missed a real chance to reach their first final since 2003.