Hard Earned point for Portadown

Portadown manager Niall Currie was delighted with the hard work and endeavour from his sidePortadown manager Niall Currie was delighted with the hard work and endeavour from his side
Portadown manager Niall Currie was delighted with the hard work and endeavour from his side
Following a recent run of poor results, Niall Currie had called on his team to get back to basics and do what they do best. That is exactly what his side did on Saturday evening at Larne. Portadown matched the champions man for man and were well worth the hard-earned point they picked up.

It was a result that was particularly pleasing to the Ports boss, “I thought our players were brilliant tonight, we showed we got back to basics tonight. We worked really really hard on Thursday night in training, on how Larne play and the shape that they play in, trying to block lanes and pathways and it worked. We were patient tonight and we stayed strong. I thought it was an absolutely fantastic performance from the players”

The first half produced little in the way of clear-cut chances, with both sides cancelling each other out. The home side were the first to show with Andy Ryan having the ball in the back of the net on seventeen minutes, but it was chalked off for offside. Six minutes later Ports captain Gary Thompson flashed the ball high across the face of the Larne goal but no-one in a white shirt was able to get on the end of it. Obhakhan should have done better when Want’s header in the box dropped to the Ports striker, but as he turned to face goal, he failed to get his knee over the ball, lifting it high over the bar.Just after the half-hour mark a free kick from Mark Randall caught out the Portadown defence leaving O’Connor with a free header, but he couldn’t get enough on the ball and McCarey easily dealt with it.

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Larne thought they had opened the scoring in the first minute of the second period when Graham met Cosgrove’s cross, and as he rose unmarked between two defenders, his goal bound header was met at full stretch by McCarey to turn the ball around the post. The visitors were next to have the pulses racing when Teelan picked out Ukek with a defence spitting pass. Ukek took the ball to the by-line before picking out Wylie, and as the Ports sub dropped his shoulder, he fired a shot just inches past the upright. All the Ports hard work looked to have been undone in the seventy-third minute when, following good work by Sloan, his cross found Ryan with half a yard of space on MacKinnon giving him just enough room to flick the ball past McCarey.Larne were unable to hold onto their lead for more than four minutes. Superb work by Rabby Minzamba left two defenders floundering allowing him to fire the ball across the six-yard box. MacKinnon saw his shot blocked, but as the ball bounced of the shins of McCullough, he let it drop before firing the ball home, to create wild scenes amongst the travelling support.The point and the performance were hard earned for Portadown at a venue where it is difficult to take anything away from, something well to the forefront of Niall Currie’s mind, “We have thecapability of hurting teams, and I think they knew it. If you get any points at a place like this, you are doing a good job. I am really pleased for the players, it gives us belief again, it hopefully gives the players belief that we can compete, and I thought we were well worthy of a point tonight.”Larne: Ferguson, Want, Donnelly, Randall (McEneff), O’Connor (McKendry), S Graham, Nolan, Cosgrove, Sloan, Gallagher, Ryan. Unused subs: D Graham, Panayioutou, Bayode, Wallace, Simpson

Portadown: McCarey, Chapman, McCullough, Altintop, MacKinnon, Ukek, Thompson (Wylie), McCartan (Isamala), Minzamba, Obhakhan (Fyfe), Teelan (Mayse). Unused subs: Williamson, Traynor, McElroy

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