Kirk Cup : Bangor 2 v 3 Portadown

Bangor slumped to an embarrassing and expensive defeat in the Kirk Cup when they lost 3-2 to Portadown on Saturday.
The defeat to the Senior One side has meant that Bangor will need an unlikely five goal win against Cookstown this week to progress to the competition's semi-finals.

To lose was bad enough, but to lose when they had a 2-1 lead and were clearly in control means a lot of work needs to be done.

New coach Robbie McMinn quite rightly read the riot act and will be keen to see his side's response in Cookstown this week. Winning the four team group may be almost impossible but the performance will set the standards for the season. They will also need to address a faltering penalty corner routine that only produced one goal from 15 set-pieces.

Last week they dominated the early exchanges but fell a goal behind to a Chris Gregg goal after 12 minutes.
The visitors lead didn't last long with Gareth Morton equalising after a good pass from Simon McCafferty. It was Morton's first goal in over a year after an injury ravaged season and his celebration showed what it meant to him.

Like buses, Morton's second goal quickly followed his first, and he gave Bangor the lead from their only successful penalty corner of the day - a deft deflection from an Adam Reading pass.

Bangor then had a very controlled spell either side of the break but that was about as good as it got. They couldn’t turn their dominance into goals and were made to pay when Portadown struck twice midway through the second period. The first goal was an audacious finish by Gary Titler after he broke through the Bangor defence and the second was a more controversial deflection by John Fleming that the home side argued was with the back of the stick.

Still, Bangor should have had enough ability and energy to bounce back into the game in the remaining 15 minutes but instead they hardly tested the Portadown goalkeeper. He comfortably dealt with a series of penalty corners and was only rarely stretched by shots from open play.

As the minutes ticked away it had the look of a game slipping away from Bangor and the well organised and disciplined Portadown side held on to the final whistle for a hard fought win.