Cliftonville left serving red in defeat to Ports

Ahu Obhakhan produced a moment of magic to double the Ports lead

It was a much-vaunted statistic dating back to 18th January 2014, the last time Portadown recorded a victory over Cliftonville, but in a season when the Ports have been slaying such records the visitors left Shamrock Park feeling red faced in more ways than one. A run of 25 games with 23 defeats and 2 draws has come to an end, leaving Portadown with an identical record to Cliftonville as the busy festive fixture schedule looms large. Niall Currie was full of praise for his goal scorers, “You will go a long way before you see two better goals, both goals were sensational”

Two goals behind at the interval, Cliftonville pushed the self-destruct button in a first half which saw them reduced to nine men. A crazy seven-minute spell began on twenty minutes whenOdhran Casey was lucky not to receive a straight red following an off the ball incident with Ryan Mayse. Casey appeared to punch Mayse and referee Rob Hennessy, part of a League of Ireland officiating team taking charge of the game on an exchange scheme, produced only a yellow card. Four minutes later Connor Pepper was yellow carded. The Cliftonville midfielder was dispossessed by Lee Chapman in the middle of the park, and he brought down the Portadown defender as he headed goalwards. Pepper was then the villain of the piece three minutes after his first yellow when he produced a needless bodycheck on Ben Wylie. The referee had no hesitation in flashing a second yellow and subsequent red card.In the forty-fourth minute a surging run onto a long ball found Eamon Fyfe one on one with the advancing Cliftonville keeper David Odumosu. Just as Fyfe was about to pounce, he was dragged to the ground by Jonathan Addis and the visitors found themselves reduced to nine men.It had been a masterly display by Portadown in the opening half and they found themselves ahead inside four minutes. A defence splitting pass from Josh Ukek found Ryan Mayse and the diminutive Ports winger calmy rounded the keeper and fired home the opener. The home side ended the first half just it they had began it, when a slick passing movement saw Lee Chapman lose his marker and his pinpoint ball into the six-yard box was finished with aplomb by Ahu. The big striker produced a stunning flick to deserve Odumosu.The Ports were expected to press home their numerical advantage in the second period and for the first ten or fifteen minutes it looked like they would do so as they exploited the space left by the first half dismissals. After that the game failed to live up to the highs of the first period with poor decision making contributing to a succession of chances being squandered.Ports gaffer Niall Currie couldn’t hide his delight at the final whistle, lavishing praise on his team, “I’m a great believer that in the first 15-20 minutes of every game, the game pans out, and I thought we came out of the changing rooms full on. We had energy, we had enthusiasm, and we had high effort and work rate.“The second half was a dull affair because for the first fifteen minutes of the second half we were very good. We kept the pitch big and got the ball into wide areas, and then a few players started doing their own thing, I’ve just told them not to be doing their own thing, but listen I am not going to go at them, they have been an absolute credit to the club.” Gerard Lyttle standing in for the suspended Jim Magilton admitted his team were second best, “It’s a poor day for us. Credit to Portadown, they got the win, but we beat ourselves today.” Lyttle expressed relief that his team didn’t have a third red card to contend with, “I did see the Casey incident and he was stupid. He was lucky”

incident and he was stupid. He was lucky” Portadown: McCarey, Altintop, MacKinnon, Chapman (Riley), Mayse, McCullough, Fyfe, Wylie, Ukek(McElroy), Obhakhan, Thompson(Henderson). Unused subs: Ray, D Wilson, Traynor, Mullan Cliftonville: Odumoso, Pepper, Addis, Kearney, Hale(Corrigan), Curran(Piesold), Doherty, Gormley(Markey), Glynn, Casey, Steven(Newberry). Unused subs: Ridd, Pettifer, Madde