With the last-16 out of the way, the Irish Cup quarter-finals will be the point of focus come the first week in March as four Premiership versus Championship clashes were revealed on Saturday.
In two cases, the lower-league side is the one at home; a meeting of the first and second-tier pacesetters with Institute entertaining Linfield, while fourth-placed Portadown will welcome the Premiership’s third-positioned outfit Cliftonville to Shamrock Park.
On the road are Ballyclare Comrades, who are Glentoran-bound, and Newington – albeit ‘away’ in inverted commas given Inver Park has been their home stage since the start of the 2023/24 season – who have reigning top-flight champions Larne for company in their last-eight date.
A tinge of disappointment, perhaps, that Championship representation is not fully guaranteed for the last-four when it was odds-on to be so, but underestimating the second-tier teams would be a cardinal sin on the part of the Premiership’s top four.
Portadown counted on a Zach Barr double either side of half-time to fend off Bangor, a tie that saw two sides split by a point and a place and was about as close-fought as you could have imagined, while Mikhail Kennedy’s eighth-minute finish was enough for ‘Stute to win another tough all-second-tier affair against Ards.
Callum Dougan was denied from the penalty spot by inspired goalkeeper Gareth Muldoon at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, where the Blues will visit on the weekend of March 2 after a Chris McKee strike and Chris Shields spot-kick ensured that they dished out a first Irish Cup loss outside the Final to Ballymena United in three years.
And Niall Currie’s Ports, who were pegged at 1-1 for almost an hour following Ben Arthurs’ headed reply to Barr’s well-taken opener before the winter recruit from Newington nodded home the winner 12 minutes from time, will roll the carpet out for a fellow red-shirted establishment who comfortably despatched Loughgall; Joe Gormley and Hale brothers Rory and Ronan were on target, plus an own goal by Pablo Andrade, in a facile 4-0 triumph at Solitude that keeps their hopes of ending their 45-year Irish Cup drought alive.
The team they beat back on April 28, 1979 at Windsor Park? None other than their next cup opponents.
In any case, Jim Magilton will be wary of Portadown who, following their Premiership drop-out in 2023, are hungry to immediately return and have gone unbeaten across knock-out competitions throughout this season.
They are in the Final of the BetMcLean Cup, won the Mid-Ulster Cup in style by beating Dungannon Swifts 5-2 and are in the last-eight of the Irish Cup after seven years away.
And adding to Rodney McAree’s Swifts, they have sent packing Cliftonville’s north Belfast foes Crusaders, Carrick Rangers, Loughgall (twice) and archrivals Glenavon from contention. It is no given by any stretch that the Premiership club will prevail.
Likewise in the north west, where Institute – themselves in a regional Final, the North West Senior Cup, where they will face Limavady United – play David Healy’s record 44-time Irish Cup champions, Kevin Deery knows that the panel at his disposal can give anyone a game.
In January, he drafted in strikers Kennedy – who has four goals in three outings and hit 17 in the league for Dergview last term – and former Ballinamallard United ace BJ Banda back to the Championship where they have previously feasted on defences, 13-times-capped former Northern Ireland defender Daniel Lafferty and retained the services of prodigious 17-year-old Larne-bound midfielder Oisin Devlin on loan for the rest of the campaign. Institute did, however, see top scorer Kirk McLaughlin recalled from his own loan there by Glentoran.
Former Derry City skipper Deery is the arguable frontrunner for Manager of the Year in the second-tier given he has taken a team that were only administratively spared a relegation play-off last year to being firmly in the conversation for a Premiership return four years on from their relegation during Covid.
Linfield are a winning machine and fancy their chances of triumph in any competition they’re in, but they must guard against going into this clash with the wrong mindset.
While a cup run can spur them on in the league, home advantage in Portadown’s and Institute’s cases could really ramp up the tension come crunch time, too.
Featured image from Alan Weir/Pacemaker Press.
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