National cups are something special for many teams and supporters. Today's match will decide whether it's Portadown or Cliftonville that keep their silverware dream alive.
It's no vacation for neither Portadown nor Cliftonville as both were in action only a few days ago. Expect some tired legs on the pitch and/or possibly some changes to the lineups.
It should be mentioned that Cliftonville play their home matches on artifical turf, so they have to adjust for this one as it's played on grass. Does it matter? Recent statistics for Cliftonville on grass are 16 victories, 11 draws and 15 defeats from 42 games. In these matches they have a goal statistics scored/conceded: 56-46. You can compare this with overall results below.
Portadown form and stats
Portadown participated in Irish League Cup the last season, where they reached the 2nd round.Portadown's results here at Shamrock Park in the Premiership have been very modest with 0 victories, 2 draws and 4 defeats.
Times are rough for the home team, having gone 279 minutes without scoring a league goal. L. Bonis was the last player to find the net.
A draw after 90 minutes last time out for Portadown, who played 0-0 against Linfield. That match was also played at this venue (Shamrock Park).
Prior to that, an away loss at Cliftonville in the Premiership.Another home game is coming up fairly shortly for the hosts, as Carrick Rangers are coming to town in four days.
The Portadown fans would probably like to see some more goals scored at their own stadium in the league, the tally being 6 in 6 matches. Goals are flowing in at the wrong end for Portadown with 12 goals conceded in these matches.
Cliftonville form and stats
Cliftonville was sent out of Irish League Cup in the quarter-finals last season.The visitors are W1-D2-L1 on the road this term. That's in the Premiership.
224 minutes! That's how long the Cliftonville goalkeeper Luke McNicholas and his defense have shut out their league opponents.
Cliftonville are travelling after their nice 3-0 home win in the Premiership against Dungannon Swifts.
Before that, Cliftonville secured a home win against Portadown with the score 4-0.The visitors will be packing their bags again in only four days as another away game awaits: The Premiership trip to Warrenpoint Town.
Cliftonville have scored 5 goals on their travels this season, from 4 away games in the league. 4 goals have been conceded by Cliftonville in these games.
Head 2 Head
Head-to-head totals (for the former ten meetings): Portadown won zero games, one match ended in a draw and Cliftonville have nine wins. Over 2,5 goals / under 2,5 goals: seven / threeTop Goalscorers
  J. Gormley 8 goals |  L. Bonis 3 goals | R. Curran 3 goals |
Portadown missing players
Cliftonville missing players
| Portadown | Cliftonville | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 12 | Played | P | 8 | 25 | ||
| 9 | 5 | Won | W | 4 | 17 | ||
| 4 | 2 | Drew | D | 2 | 4 | ||
| 12 | 5 | Lost | L | 2 | 4 | ||
| 34 | 18 | Scored | S | 16 | 46 | ||
| 47 | 18 | Conceded | C | 9 | 20 | ||
| 96% | 92% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 96% | ||
| 80% | 75% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 88% | 80% | ||
| 64% | 58% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 62% | 56% | ||
| 48% | 33% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 50% | 24% | ||
| 28% | 33% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 12% | 8% | ||
| 56% | 67% | BTTS | BTTS | 75% | 52% | ||
| 20% | 25% | Clean Sheets | C S | 12% | 40% | ||
| 28% | 17% | Failed to Score | F T | 12% | 12% | ||
| 4.4 | 4.5 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 5.6 | 5.6 | ||
| 7 | 7.7 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 4.6 | 3.3 | ||
| 1.9 | 2.1 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 0.7 | 0.9 | ||
| 3 | 2 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 0 | ||
| 8.4 | 9.1 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 9.9 | 10.3 | ||
| 3.6 | 4.2 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 4 | 4.4 | ||
| 39% | 35% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 46% | 39% | ||
| 10.4 | 8.7 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 10 | 8.7 | ||
| 5.1 | 4.3 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 4.1 | 2.8 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Cliftonville | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 22 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 14 | 29 |
| 2 | Larne | 12 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 22 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 24 |
| 3 | Linfield | 11 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 21 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 16 | 23 |
| 4 | Coleraine | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 23 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 16 | 9 | 14 | 22 |
| 5 | Glentoran | 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 21 | 17 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 21 |
| 6 | Crusaders | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 16 |
| 7 | Carrick Rangers | 11 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 8 | -5 | 14 |
| 8 | Ballymena United | 11 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 19 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 11 | -8 | 13 |
| 9 | Glenavon | 11 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 14 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 5 | -1 | 10 |
| 10 | Dungannon Swifts | 10 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 30 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 15 | -14 | 6 |
| 11 | Portadown | 12 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 27 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 15 | -16 | 6 |
| 12 | Warrenpoint Town | 11 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 8 | 29 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 20 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 9 | -21 | 3 |