Derry's Mark Lynch battles with Ciaran McKeever of Armagh

Colin Devlin kept his head in a frantic period of stoppage-time to coolly shoot over the decisive point.

Seconds earlier Armagh felt they should have had a free in front of the posts which could have put them ahead.

Paddy Bradley was the top scorer of the match with five points for the victorious Oak Leafers.

Two of the Bradley scores came in the first half and with other points from Devlin, Paul Murphy, Barry McGoldrick and Mark Lynch, Derry were 0-6 to 0-4 ahead at the break.

But, when Armagh landed four unanswered scores in the second half, it looked like the 2002 Sam Maguire winners would go through.

They failed to pull away though and made their Championship exit.

Derry boss Paddy Crozier hailed the manner in which his side responded after the defeat by Monaghan in the Ulster semi-final.

"They took servere criticism over the last two weeks but 70 minutes of football does not make them bad players," he said.

"We showed a lot of character but this is just one qualifying match. We cannot lose the head.

"We have got to get the players back down to earth.

"On our day we can be sensational, then the next we do not turn up. But that is the joy of playing football."

Derry: S O'Kane, M McGoldrick, K McCloy, G O'Kane, L Hinphey, SM Lockhart, F McEldowney, F Doherty, J Conway, P Murphy (0-1), C Gilligan, M Lynch (0-1), C Devlin (0-2), P Bradley (0-5), B McGoldrick (0-1).
Substitutes: R Wilkinson for Gilligan, J Diver for Conway, J Keenan for Hinphey, G Donaghy for Lynch.

Armagh: P Hearty, E McNulty, B Donaghy, A Mallon, A Kernan, K McGeeney, K McKeever, P McGrane, K Toner, P McKeever, S Kernan (0-2), M O?Rourke, S McDonnell (0-4), D Marsden (0-1), O McConville (0-2).
Substitutes: K Dyas for McKeever, J Lavery for Toner, P Keenan for McKeever.

Referee: E Murtagh (Longford)