Another BetMcLean Cup showpiece has been determined after the two semi-finals reached their conclusions during the week.
Surviving overnight rain and frost to take place as scheduled, the premise of a last-four clash is based on being cold-blooded when your chances come along – and while neither encounter may not live too long in the memory for the football, the victors in each will look back and see that they’d done just what they needed to: win.
The visitors prevailed in both ties. A Mid-Ulster Derby that was billed as even more of a blockbuster than usual given the context of what was at stake only saw a solitary goal, but just what it meant to the Portadown faithful at full-time is beyond what you could put into words.
They will face holders Linfield in the decider; despite finishing with 10 men and their second goal being hotly disputed in the aftermath of affairs at Stangmore Park, they avoided a slip-up in a banana-skin tussle to keep their hopes of defending the crown alive – again, by the game’s odd goal.
As a result, this year’s edition of the competition that has taken increased precedence on the calendar in recent years has a new, tasty dynamic.
Either the Blues will complete a tournament repeat or the Ports will mount arguably the cup’s biggest Final upset.
Given the NI Football League’s bold but successful call to move the date with destiny to a Sunday – attendances of around 11,000 were achieved in 2022 and ’23 – the decider has that feel of ‘occasion’ written all over it, and come March, a full-hearted battle will ensue between sides split by a league but on a level playing field then.
Semi-finals are make-or-break in their very nature. Losing them brings a raw kind of pain, a sense of a shot at glory and a big day out ruefully spurned; win them, and the post-match scenes live in infamy.
It’s fair to say that was certainly the case at Mourneview Park on Tuesday night.
The derby between Glenavon and Portadown may be no more in league play right now – the latter suffered relegation from the Premiership last term and are fighting valiantly to reclaim their top-tier status – but that only added to the spice when the pair faced off in this knock-out setting.
On the Ports’ last trip to the Lurgan venue last April, the home fans paraded a red coffin bearing their bitter rivals’ crest around the ground as their drop-out was confirmed.
This time, however, the last rites were held for the Mourneview Aces’ BetMcLean Cup Final hopes in 2024 as Portadown emerged on top in a first derby for over 12 years where Gary Hamilton wasn’t in the home dugout.
Stephen McDonnell, remarkably a teenager when his predecessor Hamilton was hired in December 2011, found his first taste of this long-standing Irish League spectacle to be a bitter one and, in truth, his team never really got started.
Flashes of class tended to come from versatile new arrival David Toure, the standout performer for a Lurgan Blues side that lacked rhythm and flow from the first whistle.
You’d hardly have known the sides were split by a league as in contrast, Niall Currie’s Ports regularly exploited their opponents’ weaker underbellies.
Playing a simple brand of football that routinely saw the ball funnelled wide, where Ryan Mayse, Mark Russell and Eamon Fyfe were tormentors-in-chief, the red-shirted outfit backed by a packed and raucous away end laid down their gauntlet and broke the deadlock 27 minutes deep into goings-on.
It was questioned from the terraces and online with the game being streamed on NIFL’s YouTube channel, but there wasn’t much hesitation from referee Christopher Morrison in pointing to the penalty spot after Zach Barr went down in the area after the challenge of reserve shot-stopper Mark Byrne.
Focal point Barr, the only one of five winter arrivals at Shamrock Park who wasn’t cup-tied, darted through the home defence, and though it had been perceived as a soft call to award a spot-kick, he’d made a decisive contribution that allowed Mayse the opportunity to open the scoring from 12 yards.
The former Dungannon skipper never looked like missing. He rifled the ball low and far into the left corner of the net before wheeling away to take the acclaim.
For being a tetchy affair thereafter that included no end of meaty tackles, there were other opportunities of note.
Early in the second half, Jack Malone saw a fierce drive from distance rattle back off the left-hand post that could’ve brought Glenavon back on terms, while Fyfe mishit a well-weighted supply by Mayse with the goal gaping; his attempt instead high and not very handsome with Portadown keen on building their lead.
Home striker and new recruit Gavin Hodgins forced an astute parry from Aaron Hogg near the first period’s close, while right at the death, a Lurgan Blue who crossed the divide in the summer perhaps should’ve forced extra-time as substitute Stephen Teggart’s goalbound shot was straight at the visiting ‘keeper and trickled away.
Battle stations in a climactic close, the Ports weathered the storm right until the last with all of their persuasion jumping for joy at the end.
Naturally, keen eyes were drawn to events up the road in Dungannon – especially as a stirring fightback appeared on the cards.
Down a man after impressive Scottish centre-back Euan East’s dismissal just before the hour mark, Linfield thought they’d made it safe when they doubled their lead through the second goal of the night from Kyle McClean.
The midfielder’s first after just seven minutes was a peach; a dead-eye free-kick arrowed over the Dungannon Swifts wall, past Declan Dunne’s dive and into the top right corner.
His second finish, though, infuriated Swifts boss Rodney McAree given Matthew Fitzpatrick’s role in the build-up. Starting his movement from an offside position, the line-leader seemed to gravitate towards the ball without actually touching it before letting McClean – who was onside – latch on and slot under Dunne to extend the Blues’ advantage on 71 minutes.
Not ruled as interference of play on Fitzpatrick’s part by the Stangmore Park officiating team, it made the mountain harder to scale for the hosts – although it wasn’t for the want of trying as the Tyrone men mounted a fightback.
McAree won the BetMcLean Cup with Dungannon in 2018 and could ramp up his hopes of repeating the feat half a dozen years on when Joe Moore scored nine minutes from time.
But a late leveller wasn’t to beckon. Another Final for Linfield and another chance for David Healy to add another trophy to his collection.
Significantly for Portadown, who won the tournament as a second-tier side under the legendary Ronnie McFall in 2009, on both previous occasions a Championship club has made this showpiece – their Gary McCutcheon-inspired 1-0 victory over Newry City which, ironically enough, came at Mourneview Park, and Ards’ appearance in 2016 when Cliftonville defeated them 3-0 – they went on to achieve promotion at the end of that campaign.
It was Currie himself who’d charted the Red and Blues’ voyage eight years previously and, after disposing of Premiership adversaries Glenavon, Crusaders and Loughgall en route to the 2024 iteration, he will hope this is just the shot in the arm his Ports – fourth-placed in the Championship at present – need to get back into the big time.
On the day, Premiership juggernauts Linfield will be cast as firm favourites to bare their trophy teeth once more.
Healy knows better than to downplay the opposite number in a Final, though, and as they seek to fend off Larne and Cliftonville in their own bid to wrestle back the Gibson Cup that they lost to the Inver Reds last year, this showpiece can spur them on in their pursuit, too.
The Blues’ familiarity with their Windsor Park home may subconsciously give them comfort, but these deciders are one-off ties where no titan is immune to an upset.
After all, a club steeped in such history and tradition as Portadown – four-time top-flight title winners themselves under McFall’s near-30-year tutelage, more than any other outside the capital – surely have it in them to weave magic on Final day.
The semi-finals carry significance in their own rights, and with that comes inevitable hypotheticals, but what we know for a fact is that another showpiece cracker awaits.
Featured image from INPHO/Stephen Hamilton.
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