Cliftonville keep Irish Cup dream alive with victory over Portadown

Portadown 0 Cliftonville 2

Cliftonville march into the semi-finals of the Irish Cup with a win over Portadown at Shamrock Park

Cliftonville’s dream of ending 45 years of Irish Cup pain is still alive.

A thrilling quarter-final tie with Portadown was decided by two second-half goals and now the Reds stand just one win away from reaching the decider in Jim Magilton’s first season in charge.

They had to dig deep to see off the battling Ports, only taking the lead 19 minutes into the second period in fortunate circumstances when Luke Wilson put the ball into his own net before sealing their progress four minutes from time through Sam Ashford.

Portadown’s intent to maintain their 100 per cent record in 10 knockout games this season – six of them against Premiership opposition - was clear right from the start.

Playing their way into the game wasn’t on their agenda as they kept Cliftonville in their own half for most of the opening spell and with their backs to the wall that, possibly surprisingly, led to a little bit of nervousness in the Cliftonville defence.

They were relieved when goalkeeper David Odumosu collected the ball after Odhran Casey sliced his clearance from Eamon Fyfe’s free kick into the box in only the seventh minute.

Gradually Cliftonvile got a foothold, had more of the ball in the Ports half and on 13 minutes, almost out of nothing, Ronan Doherty found Ashford and his strike from just inside the box rattled the woodwork.

That close call lit the fuse for what then because a pulsating cup tie.

Ten minutes later the Ports rattled the frame of the goal themselves when Fyfe collected a neat pass by Paul McElroy and although the angle looked almost impossible Cliftonville were relieved to see the ball rebound