Cooper has Ports Over a Barrel


The Blues took the lead in the third minute when a long free kick from Linfield goalkeeper David Walsh inside his own half was headed down in the box, and when Altintop failed to deal with the second ball Cooper nipped in to slot home past McCarey from an acute angle. The lead was doubled in the sixth minute when the home defence again gave that man Cooper the space to run onto a knockdown from Kirk Millar and he was on hand to slide the ball under McCarey into the net.Linfield almost made in three in the twenty-fourth minute when a McClean shot was deflected just past the post. It was three however two minutes later when an attempted back pass by Gary Thompson fell short and Cooper shrugged off Mackinnon leaving McCarey with little chance to keep out the hat-trick goal. The Ports almost pulled one back in the thirty-third minute when from a corner a McCullough header went narrowly over. Portadown had claims for a penalty in the sixty-eighth minute when a McCartan shot was deflected with claims of handball.
Niall Currie made a couple of changes at the break with McCartan and Wylie replacing Mayseand Fyfe. On the fifty-eighth minute Linfield accrued a record of ten hours without conceding a goal in all competitions but two minutes later that record was ended. Portadown forced three corners in quick succession and with the visitors unable to clear the danger Rabby Minzambawas on hand to force the ball over the line. The Linfield goal suffered another fright on seventyseven minutes when a floated ball to the back post was fumbled by Walsh. The home side were piling on the pressure and a quick break by Ukek saw him lift his shot just over the bar.Linfield weathered the second half Ports pressure to see out the game and go fifteen points clear at the top of the table.
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Hide AdPorts manager Niall Currie was left to lament that kamikaze first twenty-six minutes, “You have to give yourself a platform, you have to give yourself an opportunity in the game. You cannot afford to give a team of this quality opportunities like that. We basically gifted them the game very early doors.”


For Currie the third goal was the killer, “At 2-0 I still thought we were in the game, but I think the third goal we gave away was the crucial one, it was the pin in the balloon moment. I thought second half we were outstanding. We had as many chances in the second half as Linfield had in the first, but the difference was they were ruthless, you have to get hold of players like your Coopers and Fitzpatricks, and in the first half we didn’t get hold of them”Three nil down at the break many fans in the stands feared more of the same in the second half, but the Ports gaffer used his half-time team talk to rally the troops, “ We went in at half-time and I asked them to show character, let’s have a wee bit of character, let’s go out and win the second half, and that’s what we did. Individual errors cost us, but you have to remember we have a centre half at 22 years of age and a centre half at 21, we don’t hang players out to dry and they are learning on their feet, they will not make the same mistakes again.”
Portadown: McCarey, Altintop, MacKinnon, Chapman, Mayse(McCartan), McCullough, Fyfe(Wylie), Ukek, Teelan, Minzamba, Thompson(Obhakhan).Unused Subs: Williamson, D Wilson, McElroy, Traynor.
Linfield: Walsh, Roscoe-Byrne, East, Whiteside, Shields, Millar(McGee), McClean, Cooper(McKee), Ballantyne(Archer), Fitzpatrick, Orr. Unused Subs; Johns, Allen, Annett, McKay