Published: Thursday, 11th February, 2010 10:03am

Portora stunned by controversial late try

by Editorial Department

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Portora players are left devastated while, in the background, Ballyclare celebrate, after a try deep in injury time ended Portora's Schools Cup hopes.

A controversial Ballyclare try eight minutes into injury time stunned Portora and left their Schools Cup dreams in tatters.

Having taken the lead for the first time with only minutes remaining on the clock thanks to a try from Matthew Tanswell, they had a place in the last eight cruelly snatched away from them with the final play of the game.

The decision of the referee to add so much injury time added to the frustration felt by the players and fans, who would have faced a tie against Methody in the last eight if they had held on to their narrow advantage.

"The Portora boys were gutted and their supporters were irate," admitted coach John McClaughry. "Having got the lead I felt we had the game won at that stage, and it was very hard luck that we lost."

During their cup run Portora had already seen off challenges from Carrickfergus and Down High School, but their huge penalty count in both games was a point of concern for the coaching staff in the lead up to the clash with a highly regarded Ballyclare side. Despite avoiding the blight of yellow cards which had marred both their previous matches in the cup, John McClaughry felt their penalty tally proved to be their undoing. "Generally our discipline cost us the game," he admitted. "The penalty count was lower than it had been in previous games but we were still a bit naive at the breakdown."

Portora had gone into the game hoping their forwards could push them into the quarter finals, but Ballyclare knew what to expect from their opponents and had made plans to combat the threat. "Ballyclare had obviously prepared well for what they heard was a massive Portora pack and they were prepared to drop backs into the pack to make the extra numbers up," said John. "It was tight game that could have gone either way, and had we won that battle up front it could have been a totally different result, but Ballyclare took on our tight five and came out on top and that was where the game was won and lost."