It was always going to be a huge ask for Woodvale to win their first round Irish Cup tie. Malahide at home was as kind a draw as they could have wished for – both teams had won only one match this season - but in the end the absences and injuries were too much to bear.

Last season, the Ballygomartin Road club finished in a dizzy second place thanks, largely, to the all-round talent of Ruhan Pretorius, the player of the season, and Aditya Adey, the NCU’s leading wicket-taker.

On Saturday, Pretorius was involved but only in a bit role, hobbling on one good leg, while Adey has left the club. Woodvale are also still awaiting the arrival of professional Ludwig Kaestner and Stephen Bunting was on babysitting duty. Paul Robinson agreed to help out after announcing his third retirement and the fact he was Woodvale’s most economical bowler only underlined their early season problems.

For large parts of the Malahide innings, it got rather messy for the hosts. They didn’t help themselves with three dropped catches, the most important that of Robbie Foulkes, the visitors’ leading run-scorer this season, on just nine. He had added another 134 runs before sub professional Pramod Maduwantha made amends for his miss with an excellent catch on the boundary to dismiss the opening batter.

Foulkes shared a third wicket stand of 179 with Cormac McLaughlin-Gavin, good enough to play 14 games for Leinster Lightning and Munster Reds, and here played more than a support role to his partner with a run-a-ball 116.

Outside of that the struggling north Dubliners offered little with the bat and, indeed, Woodvale restricted them to 66 in the last 10 overs, while taking the last seven wickets.

Kyle Walsh was the leading wicket-taker, with three, Finn Restieaux picked up a couple and there was one apiece for Robinson, off spinner Maduwantha and Carl Robinson who also bowled a tidy 10 overs.

Pretorius managed just four overs, conceding 33 runs but Matthew Peak probably wished he hadn’t bowled two overs, the second which lasted nine balls and went for 33.

Woodvale needed a good start if they were to have a chance of getting anywhere near Malahide’s final total of 340. But after four balls they were two for two with James Rose run out by his captain who then compounded his risky call by losing his own wicket three balls later, bowled by James Newland.

Restieaux followed in the fourth over, albeit to a stunning one-handed catch at backward point by Andrew Sheridan who later showed it was no fluke by diving to take a return catch from Pretorius inches above the ground.

Pretorius had hit eight fours in his 36 but his wicket, as has been the case too often, proved the beginning of the end for Woodvale and after that only Sri Lankan left hander Maduwantha looked capable of staying for any length of time. He faced 61 balls and hit seven boundaries in his 47 not out, but he ran out of partners in only the 24th over with a meagre 117 on the board.

Maduwantha returns to the Lancashire League after what is likely to be a one-off appearance as Keastner is due to arrive on Tuesday. Woodvale will need him firing from the off and a fully fit Pretorius if they are to make any impression on the Premier League this season.

Malahide, for whom all five bowlers got among the wickets, including Mike Frost in his first game of the season, will be hoping for another kind draw next but at least they have three more of their best players still to join the action so have a chance to build on a deserved second win of the season.