City foiled by late equaliser

Portadown 1 Cork City 1

But following yellow cards picked up in last night's tie, both Alan Bennett and Danny Murphy will miss the clash with Shelbourne at Tolka Park on May 2.

Striker John O' Flynn was back in the squad after recovering from a hip injury, but he was confined to the bench for City, while Gary Hamilton - already the scourge of Shelbourne and the striker who holds an Irish League record for scoring six times in one game - was a controversial omission for Portadown.

However, he didn't have to warm the bench for too long, replacing the injured Kyle Neill after 25 minutes, to join the familiar figure of Vinny Arkins upfront.

His arrival came just after City's Kevin Doyle volleyed acrobatically over the Portadown bar, after being picked out with his customary precision by George O'Callaghan. That was the closest we came to a goal in an uninspiring first-half.

With Marc McCann and Wesley Boyle impressive on the flanks and Vinny Arkins ever the willing target man, Portadown offered some neat build-up play but were repeatedly let down by the final ball. For Cork, O' Callaghan always looked to play the killer pass and Kearney supplied some jinking runs but, similarly, they were unable to give the hardy knot of travelling supporters behind Devine's goal much to cheer about in the opening 45 minutes - although the uneasy handling of Devine's counterpart Paul Murphy might have been punished on another night.

But as the evening darkened, City's football brightened up, and five minutes after the restart they almost broke the deadlock. Kevin Doyle flicked on a long kick-out from Michael Devine and Denis Behan saw his drive from the corner of the box, superbly turned around the post by Murphy's full-length, one-handed save.

City upped the tempo and threat of their attacks, and ten minutes later, got their deserved breakthrough, Colin O'Brien supplying the pass up the left to Kevin Doyle, who outpaced the defence and kept his composure to beat Murphy with a low drive.

In what was proving to be a much livelier half, the visitors now appeared to be in control - and their fans were already giving voice to 'The Banks' - when, in the 77th minute, a rare Portadown attack produced a corner. Gary Hamilton swung it in, the City defence hesitated and Darren Kelly was able to power home a header from close range.

Now, the pendulum swung in the home side's favour as, driven on by the classy and sometimes tigerish midfield work of Michael Collins - a name to conjure with - the Reds pressed the City goal in search of a winner.

It wasn't to be, but the spirit of their comeback spoke volumes for the resilience of this Portadown side, while City will ultimately have been happy enough to travel home from this testing encounter with a valuable away point.

Portadown: Murphy, Feeney, O' Hara, Clarke (McCann 63), Convery, Kelly, Boyle (Quinn 73), Collins, Neill (Hamilton 25) Arkins, McCann.

Cork City: Devine, Murphy, Bennett, Murray, O' Brien, O' Callaghan, Woods, Horgan, Kearney, Behan, Doyle

Referee: Brian Turkington.