Cork City’s disappointing home form this season continued tonight when they were defeated 1-0 by Portadown in the final Group 2, Setanta Cup fixture. The result means Shelbourne will play in the final at Tolka Park on Saturday evening next, 21 May 2005.

Not for the first time this year, Cork dominated possession but they were unable to make any real inroads into a resolute Portadown defence which stood firm all evening. In the early exchanges, Cork appeared to have taken the lead when Irish U21 international Kevin Doyle bundled the ball home following a fumble by Paul Murphy in the Portadown goal but the linesman had earlier flagged for offside.

Portadown goalkeeper Murphy, formerly of Leicester City and a member of Sean McCaffrey’s U19 squad last year went on to have a fine game and thwarted Cork on several occasions, notably when denying Dan Murray, Liam Kearney and George O’Callaghan on separate instances in the second half.

Cork’s early dominance went for nought when on 30 minutes, Portadown’s Northern Ireland international, Gary Hamilton struck a 30 yard volley past Mark McNulty, who was deputising for the suspended Michael Devine, in goal. The goal, which came totally against the run of play proved to be the only goal of the match.

The dismissal of Hamilton, just five minutes after he scored, for foul pay raised hopes that Cork could recover the deficit but it was not to be. Despite having several reasonable chances, the Leesiders were frequently too rushed in their approach and lacked composure throughout.

An already dismal evening finished on a further poor note for Cork when goalkeeper McNulty, who has been selected in Stuart Ashton’s Four Nations Tournament squad for next week, was dismissed for a professional foul.