Bad day at the off for Portrush Firsts

The Ports found themselves one down within minutes of the start as the home side scored after a short corner.

Portrush just couldn’t seem to find the ball, as Portadown kept wearing down the Portrush defence.

Playing from a long corner, a slick one two past the Portrush defence left space for the Portadown player to fire away a shot to make it 2-0. Within five minutes of play after the second goal Portadown found the net for a third time.

After the issue of a green card, Portadown seized total control and bagged another goal.

As the umpire showed another green card, Portrush where at a disadvantage again and Portadown weren’t showing signs of stopping adding a fifth goal.

Portrush finally managed to score a goal by Leon smith

But that was as good as it got as Portadown grabbed a sixth.

With another sending off, a yellow card put Portrush again for a third time at a disadvantage, and it wasn’t long before the Portadown captain scored the seventh, and soon came the eighth.

A very disappointing game for Portrush, but just shows the level of standard that the squad will be faced with this season.

Portrush will face Queens next Saturday, and will be determined to play a better game.

There was better news for the Second XI as they took on South Antrim fourths.

They came back from a goal down to eventually run out 3-2 winners on the day.

Andy Dalzell picked up the man of the match following an impressive second half performance, two well-taken goals and his vocal leadership when the game threatened to slip away.