Portadown do enough to hold on

SETANTA CUP FIRST ROUND Bohemians 1 Portadown 2:HAVING HAD to do so much to save their club over the course of the close season, Bohemians supporters will probably be a little less enthusiastic about reckless spending than your average fans this year, but, on the strength of this Setanta Cup display, they might still be forgiven for hoping

Pat Fenlon’s rebuilding programme hasn’t quite finished yet.

With two of last night’s starters having only signed for the club last Friday, it’s no great surprise that things aren’t quite the most fluid yet. Bohemians, to be fair, were missing two of what will most likely prove to be their regular back four, but there was little that either Mark Rossiter or Liam Burns would have been able to do to prevent Kevin Braniff’s outstanding opening goal just before the end of a disappointingly disjointed first half in this first leg tie.

After an ill-judged backward header by Robert Bayley, Braniff hit a powerful shot, taken high on the turn, which clattered off the underside of the crossbar on the way in from close to 30 yards.

The setback for the hosts was compounded by the injury sustained by goalkeeper Barry Murphy in the futile attempt to keep the ball out.

Substitute goalkeeper 19-year-old Craig Sexton did nothing much wrong last night and the teenager could scarcely have been faulted for Portadown’s second which Keith O’Hara drove firmly past him to the bottom right corner after quick passing play by Richard Lecky and Braniff left the home side’s central defensive partnership of Aidan Price and Kevin Feely scrambling helplessly around the middle of their own area.

Feely made a more positive impression a couple of minutes later when he picked out Anto Flood with a long pass up field and the striker, having cut into the area from the right, held the ball up nicely before handing Karl Somers a goal on a plate.

A good deal more fired up than they had ever seemed up until then, the hosts then set about chasing an equaliser and they came close to getting it more than once with Killian Brennan, a much more influential figure as the evening wore on, first going close himself with a free from 25 yards then setting up Flood for what should have been a tap in at the far post only to see the former Shelbourne man fail to make contact.

Brennan took a couple of knocks along the way and may have felt aggrieved in what was becoming a slightly tetchy game but the winger’s challenge on Garry Breen still looked needlessly reckless, at least to the referee who promptly sent him off.

Despite being down to 10 men Bohemians, to their credit, still pushed for their goal and the closing 10 minutes were probably the game’s best.

Portadown in the end, though, had enough to hold on and will start next Monday’s second leg in a strong position to progress.

BOHEMIANS: Murphy (Sexton, half-time); Heary, Feely, Price, Cahill; Dixon (Burke, 58 mins), Bayly, O'Brien, Brennan; Flood, Somers (Tranynor, 74 mins).

PORTADOWN: Miskelly; Craig, Gartland, Breen, Redman (Ramsey, half-time); Mouncey (McCabe, 79 mins), Cawley, O'Hara; Baker, Lecky, Braniff.

Referee: T Connolly(Dublin).