"(It's a) proud day to be a Tyrone man and it's a long time coming. It's very emotional! I remember standing on the Hill watching (Ciaran) Corr, (Feargal) Logan and (Peter) Canavan lifting them on hot summers days. I definitely took it for granted."

After a six year wait, Sean Cavanagh and Tyrone got their hands on the Anglo Celt Cup silverware.

"We have battled hard throughout a very tough, bruising championship campaign and we played really well through periods of it but ultimately we came up short - it's as simple as that."

Donegal gave it their best shot but it wasn't to be, says Rory Gallagher.

"We got back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010 and nobody cared a jot. Now, you see what it means to them to win today. This is a real reality check for people. These Ulster titles are important and they don't come around easy."

Mickey Harte's fifth Ulster SFC success as manager of the Red Hand County ranks as his best.

"The stand-out thing for me was that our lads went for it. When you're developing something the habit is to play safe but we didn't want to play safe today."

Galway's players came up trumps for manager Kevin Walsh.

"We have been stale in the championship. I have said it before - we have put a lot of effort into the league and we have to look at that. We don't seem to be performing as well as we can. But we're better than that performance today."

Can Roscommon bounce back against Clare? Fergal O'Donnell hopes so.

"James just got a contact injury on his quad on Wednesday. We could have pushed him but it was five days and with the new rules, you need to put your team in earlier than what it used to be."

Jim Gavin explained James McCarthy's absence from the Dublin line-up against Westmeath.

"We needed a whammy. We have to be fair. We have to be honest. We were hoping to try and entice him. Sure that's what most teams do. But he's a fabulous footballer. Just a fabulous footballer. One of the best in the country, if not the best."

Despite the best efforts of Tom Cribbin and his players, Diarmuid Connolly refused to rise to the bait.

"I didn't flop and I'm happy enough (with the outcome). It was probably more difficult for my family and stuff over the last couple of days, but I'm just delighted to get back out on the field, help my team and get the game under the belt."

The fall-out from that 'dive' has been tough on Aidan O'Shea and his family.

"Mayo are only getting started, believe me, they're improving every single game."

Kildare boss Cian O'Neill expects Mayo to have a major say in the destination of the Sam Maguire Cup.

"We will sit down with the players and see what they want, and then we'll sit down with the county board and see what they want."

Cavan bowed out of the running against Derry and question marks hang over the future of manager Terry Hyland and his backroom team.

"I didn't see what happened but it let us push Chrissy McKaigue on to Gearoid McKiernan and we'd much better shape in the second-half."

Hyland's Derry counterpart Damian Barton admitted the dismissal of the Breffni County's Feargal Flanagan was a decisive moment in their qualifier victory.

"I felt we took a lot of wrong options in the first half, particularly from frees where we were taking on shots that were not on and we should have been going short. But the penalty brought us back into the game and the two boys in midfield took over once we started to get on top."

Clare's midfield pairing of Gary Brennan and Cathal O'Connor came in for special praise from manager Colm Collins.

"I felt for ten minutes of the second half that we had the run of the game. We had four or five opportunities - two held up in the wind, one dropped to the keeper, we had a goal chance and one went wide. A few scores then could have given us a bit of a cushion."

Sligo and Niall Carew were let to rue missed scoring opportunities.

"We were sent an article during the week where a local (Cork) journalist tipped Longford, even people down in our own place didn't fancy us so we showed plenty of character and it's good to shove it down their throats."

Paul Kerrigan and Cork proved their doubters wrong against Longford.

"Looking back on our run we've played 230 minutes against Division 1 teams and it basically took nearly 210 minutes to finally break us down."

The well ran dry for Denis Connerton and the Midlanders.

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