All-Ireland SFC Round 2A: Louth 2-20 Armagh 2-19Chaos. Freestyle. Emotion. Gavin Devlin dug deep into his vocabulary when asked to put some sort of explanation around this result but it was a difficult one to make much sense of.All he could do was keep bringing it back to those intangibles, and to thank the heavens that Louth came out on the right side of a remarkable encounter in Inniskeen.Sure, there was some science to it earlier on when the game swung this way and that, Armagh leading initially, then Louth wrestling back the momentum, and so forth.But by the time Sam Mulroy found himself in possession a couple of metres outside the 45, with only seconds remaining on the clock inside the compact Páirc Grattan, and with the 70 minutes apparently up on the RTÉ TV clock, all logic and subtlety had been abandoned.It was a simple case of get-it-in-the-mixer. Louth trailed by two points, so Mulroy may have been trying for a two-pointer. Who knows. Either way, his kick didn’t have the carry and dropped short, presenting Ethan Rafferty with the opportunity to apply a pin prick to Louth’s ballooning hopes of reaching an All-Ireland quarter-final by the direct route.Only Rafferty couldn’t pull it off, the ball squirming through his grasp as he jumped that little bit too early and got caught beneath the size five which fell in behind him.Louth's Sam Mulroy celebrates the winning goal with James Maguire. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho Nobody was quite sure what to do next. Rafferty grabbed a fresh ball for a kick-out. But time was up. Then he dropped to the ground and covered his face in his hands as the gravity of his error dawned.Let it be stated that Rafferty actually had a decent game otherwise. He was a late replacement for Blaine Hughes and drew the manager’s praise afterwards for his general performance. He even assisted an early point for Ross McQuillan in his sweeper -keeper role.Louth supporters streamed on to the pitch afterwards, their pitch. Sure, it belongs to the Inniskeen Grattans club but that’s four wins from four competitive games now for Louth at the venue. They must have some sort of claim to the ground? They beat Cork and Meath, twice, there in 2024, the win over Cork securing their last All-Ireland quarter-final appearance.The nuts and bolts of it now is that Louth have a fortnight until they next play. Armagh must regroup quickly. They’ll find out their Round 3 opponents on Monday morning and play them next weekend.It may help that they didn’t flop. It wasn’t vintage Armagh but it wasn’t a no-show either.Louth were at their best in the second quarter, battling back from a slow start and the concession of a Gareth Murphy goal to lead 0-14 to 1-9 at the break.Louth's Anthony Williams and manager Gavin Devlin celebrate after the game. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho Ciarán Downey’s point, after evading both Oisín Conaty and Murphy with successive dummy solos, underlined the quality they brought. Dara McDonnell was even better and finished with 1-3, his 45th-minute goal keeping his team in it as Armagh gained an upper hand again in the third quarter.There were huge Louth performances too from James Maguire and Craig Lennon, but as Armagh twice opened up three-point leads in the closing quarter, the men in black looked set to pinch it.Then Mulroy pointed from a free won by Downey, to leave two in it. The clock looked set to defeat him at the end but Lennon fed him and Mulroy got his shot away, just about evading Joe McElroy’s blocking hands. And Rafferty’s too.LOUTH: N McDonnell; E Carolan, D McKenny, D Nally; C McKeever, D McDonnell (1-0-3), C Lennon (0-0-3); S Callaghan, J Maguire (0-0-3); P Matthews, S Mulroy (1-1-2, tpf, 1f), C Grimes (0-0-1); K McArdle, C Downey (0-0-4), R Burns (0-0-1).Subs: C Byrne for Grimes (50 mins); T Durnin for Matthews (52); T McDonnell for McKeever (53); C Early (0-0-1) for Callaghan (57); C McCaul for Burns (66).ARMAGH: E Rafferty (0-1-0, tpf); P McGrane, A McKay, G Murphy (1-0-0); G McCabe, T Kelly, J Óg Burns (0-1-1); R McQuillan (0-0-4), J McElroy; C McConville (0-0-3, 1f), D McMullan (0-0-1), T McCormack; C Turbitt (0-0-2, 1f), J Duffy (0-0-2), O Conaty (1-0-1).Subs: O O’Neill (0-0-1, f) for McCabe (34-42 mins); McCabe for Kelly (42); D Magee for McCormack (59); R Grugan for McQuillan (64); A Forker for McConville (67).Referee: C Lane (Cork).