A sizeable contingent of travelling fans experienced heartache as Portimonense failed to gain promotion to Portugal’s top tier by the narrowest of margins in Varzim last Saturday afternoon.
The league appointed two experienced international referees to oversee the decisive encounters also involving already promoted Chaves hosting fellow promotion hopefuls Feirense with the premise clear: manager José Augusto’s men had to better the result achieved by their rivals.
In the event Portimonense proved unable to break down the well-organised home defence resulting in few, if any, real scoring opportunities at either end. The match remained goalless with Musa Yahaya and Buba coming closest to breaking the deadlock.
Meanwhile, just under 100 miles away, a misunderstanding in the Chaves defence gifted visiting Feirense an opening goal, but the hosts only needed four minutes to atone for the mistake with Barry heading the equaliser.
The 1-1 scoreline was maintained until the final whistle only emphasising how valuable a single strike back in Varzim would have been to Portimonense’s cause.
As it was, both matches ended in draws leaving Feirense and Portimonense on 78 points in the final table and the club from Santa Maria da Feira celebrating thanks to its better head-to-head record against the Algarve team this season.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances relating to either financial irregularities or match-fixing allegations currently being investigated by authorities (click here), Portimonense will thus spend another season in the second tier now sadly bereft of local rivals Farense who were relegated during the same momentous weekend.
