Portimonense might have been satisfied with a three-point return from two matches against top opposition within four days had one of those not featured another painful home defeat.
Last week not much was expected from the trip to second-placed Chaves and yet the Algarveans were able to inflict the first defeat in 15 games upon the promotion chasers with a brilliant tactical performance.
Standing firm in defence, Fidelis took advantage of some poor play from home keeper Stefanovic to put the visitors ahead with their first attempt at goal just after the half-hour mark.
Chaves emerged after the interval to lay siege to the Portimonense area but once more it was the visitors who found the back of the net through a Ryuki counter attack as full time approached. It was then left to Barry to grab a late consolation goal deep into injury time leaving the score at 2-1 in Portimonense’s favour.
In contrast, Sunday’s game back in the municipal stadium saw Portimonense return to their more usual forward play, but fell victim to similar counter-attacking tactics previously employed at Chaves.
Freamunde led at the interval by virtue of a tremendous Robson strike and Portimonense were then denied an equaliser when a Gleison goal was wrongly adjudged not to have crossed the line.
The unfortunate forward received his second yellow card shortly afterwards but, despite the numerical inferiority, Portimonense still looked the more likely to score until an 89th minute sucker punch producing the final 2-0 score line.
Next up is an away trip to runaway leaders Tondela this Sunday.
SKIP BANDELE
