Ports take a while to secure points

The warning signs were there for the home side early in the opening period, following a slick passing movement Ladislau Alves rattled the Ports crossbar and Bobby-Jack McAleese forced McCarey into a fine save. From the resulting corner the ball was swung deep to the back post where Adam Glenny headed back across the six yard box and Danny Wallace was quickest to react, stretching out a foot to force the ball across the line.

It might have been 2-0 on the half-hour mark but for a top drawer save again from McCarey, to divert the ball over the bar. Controversy then ensued when Swifts keeper Declan Dunne appeared to step out of the penalty area to collect the ball, and despite passionate appeals the match officials were unswayed.

Portadown were fortunate to go in at the break trailing by a single goal. Currie was clearly disappointed in the performance, " Our ball retention was really poor and we owed a big thank you to our back four and goalkeeper, who were really solid. We didn't have any control of the game in the first half and that's what upset me the most, we were poor we didn't carry a threat"

Whatever he said at half time it clearly made the right impact with the players. Within four minutes of the restart The Ports were back on level terms. A strong driving run by Josh Ukek saw him feed the ball out to Eamon Fyfe who in turn slipped the ball to McCullough, and his driven ball low across the face of goal was turned home by Ahu Obhakhan sliding in at the near post. Altintop almost put the home side ahead but his back post header from a corner kick went narrowly wide.

Portadown made a number of substitutions and it was two of the subs that combined when Ryan Mayse put Ben Wylei clear through the centre of the Swifts defence to slide the ball past Dunne, only to be thwarted by the Assistant Referee raising his flag to indicate offside.

Dungannon still posed a serious threat and McCarey was called upon to perform heroics diving full stretch to turn a James Knowles effort around the post. The Ports failed to properly clear the resulting corner and when the ball was swung back in two the box Maguire headed narrowly over.

With the clock running down Portadown forced a succession of corners and with the last of the five added minutes time expiring Mayse floated his corner to the back post for Ben Wylie to headed home the winner.

Dungannon boss Rodney McAree was clearly upset at the second half turnaround: "Whatever information we tried to get onto the pitch was falling on deaf ears, we have to show a better level of professionalism in terms of controlling the game. It was there for either team to win but it was uncontrollable for us, we turned it into a game that suited Portadown."

Portadown: McCarey, Chapman, Altintop, MacKinnon, McCullough, L Wilson(Wylie), Thompson(McCawl), Fyfe, McCartan(Mullan), Ukek(Redman), Obhakhan(Mayse)

Dungannon: Dunne, Scott, McGovern(Owens), Dillon, Alves(Mitchell), Glenn, McGinty, Maguire(Boyd), McAleese(Knowles), Wallace, Bigirimana