CLIFTONVILLE boss Jim Magilton believes that Portadown will give his side everything they want ahead of Friday evening’s Clearer Water Irish Cup quarter-final.

The Reds make the trip to Shamrock Park (7.45pm kick-off) hoping to put their recent league setbacks aside and claim a place in the last four of the Cup.

A tricky tie lies in store, however, against a Portadown side that have ground to make up in the race for promotion to the Premiership.

However, the Ports are a week away from the Bet McLean League Cup final against Linfield and have claimed scalps from many top-flight clubs on their run to the final, so Friday evening’s clash with the Reds is something Magilton is wary of.

“They are going to give us everything we want,” Magilton acknowledged.

“We have to be very determined not to go out of the Cup.

“I think our league chances are over and our next big thing if you like is to try and win the Irish Cup. There is no question about that.

“Portadown are going to present massive problems to us, and we’ve got to stand up to that and come out with more ourselves.”

Magilton believes his side lacked a cutting edge in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Dungannon and wasn’t worried about a possible hangover from their midweek defeat, pre-match.

“We created decent chances without real clear-cut chances,” he offered.

“That might be harsh on us, but I’ll watch it back. We had the momentum going in at half-time and we felt that if we kept going and kept moving the ball quickly then we could create something.

“The goalkeeper gifts us a goal and we got back in the game, and we flattered to deceive after that.

“We went 2-1 down, the game stretched, and we were left vulnerable. When we are left vulnerable and playing with a four, we got exposed.

“There was no reason to overreact. We got beaten on the night. We didn’t perform particularly well.

“I expected a reaction today. All signs were good - the players were lively.

“We came here and we knew what Dungannon were going to present to us. It was an opportunity for us to really go and stand up for ourselves and ultimately, we didn’t.”

On their title aspirations, Magilton concedes that any hopes of winning the Gibson Cup are gone but warns they can’t dwell on the negatives ahead of Friday evening.

“I think that’s gone now,” he admitted.

“I think that’s well gone now and I think our focus now turns to the Irish Cup.

“Again, I expected more and didn’t get it. At the end of the day, we have to reflect on this performance.

“We can’t dwell on it for too long because we’ve now got a massive game against a side that don’t particularly lose many cup games.

“That’s going to be a tough game and we’ll see who has the character to go and stand up to that.

“This year, their test of character has been shown many, many times and they’ve come over that hurdle. Now they’ve had two setbacks.

“One you can accept, in terms of the Tuesday night game but we expected more today, and we didn’t get it.”