The romantic script of a first Ulster title has still to be written and after Sunday it looks as far away as ever. 
It was one of those games that you just sat back, took stock and admired a far superior opponent.
The buzz and excitement in the build up to the final was special. Flags, posters, banners and school kids all out in their Fermanagh jerseys. 
Queues at O’Neill’s shop in Enniskillen, the rush for tickets, the scorching heat; surely this was our year. 
Fermanagh Street in Clones became just that, with a sea of green and white taking over. 
Donegal supporters were there too, mannerly and courteous as always, joining in with the craic and banter on the streets. 
Up until just after 2pm it was our day, our time to shine.
The fear going into the final was falling four or five points behind early on, causing Fermanagh to chase the game and abandon their defensive system that served them well against Armagh and specifically, Monaghan. 
We needed an exact replica game of the semi-final win in Omagh but Donegal brought a different vibe and pace to the game that even the most seasoned of defensive systems would find difficult to curtail.
Fermanagh dealt pretty well with the first few Donegal attacks and limited Paddy McBrearty’s and Michael Murphy’s input but the pace and overlapping runs that were coming from deep caused the most trouble. The danger with packing the defence is players leaving men free thinking they have cover behind. 
This is exactly what happened for the first goal when Ryan McHugh creeped in behind before passing across to Eoghan Gallagher who ran straight down the middle unattended.
Donegal defended in as many numbers as Fermanagh but with the sweltering heat and fear of a runner coming through, Fermanagh did not push up in support as quickly as they should have. 
With the exception of intermittent breaks from Eoin Donnelly, very few players tried to break the line or make some sort of inroads through the Donegal defence.
As has been the case all year, limiting the opposition scoring threat has reaped the most success for this team. 
We play to our strengths, as Rory pointed out after the game, “We know the players at our disposal and we are trying to win as many games as we can. We tried to push up early on and they got kick outs away. We don’t have an awful lot of natural pace inside so we have to play a certain game. We did create a lot of openings but we needed a lot of those wides to go over.”
Ryan Jones and Donnelly have formed a very strong midfield partnership this year and this was an area that Fermanagh was expected to win. Donegal had clearly worked on this and used this to their advantage by pushing up on Pat Cadden’s kick outs forcing him to kick long. They flooded the middle, winning numerous breaks and setting up counter attacks. When starved of primary possession it was always going to be difficult to limit their scoring threat and create enough chances to win the game.
I have played many games in my career where, from the first minute, you are expending every ounce of energy chasing the game. Two stand out; Armagh in the 2002 Ulster Championship and Kerry in the Qualifiers that same year. 
Those two teams ended up in the All-Ireland final that year, leaving us to lick our wounds after two heavy defeats. 
Both games were played at a level that was beyond us and, like Sunday, we had no complaints about the result. It doesn’t make it any easier to take though.
Donegal are an exceptional team and like Armagh and Kerry back in ’02, they will have a real chance of knocking on the door at Jones’ Road in early September. 
Such is the effort and energy exhausted in pursuit of the Anglo Celt Cup, it will be a difficult task for Rory to regroup these players for the qualifier game next week. A game that may be an all Ulster affair!
Unfortunately, I know exactly how the players are feeling this week. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. They need to take stock of what they have achieved. 
There is a bit of excitement back in the county. The kids are all out in their Fermanagh kits wanting to be the next Eoin Donnelly or Paul McCusker. 
Maybe one of those kids, having been inspired by this team, will finally reach the Holy Grail and lift the Anglo Celt for us.