Seagulls flying high at the Ports
Newly promoted Bangor claimed their first away win in the topflight since January 2009 as they sent Portadown crashing to defeat at Shamrock Park last Friday night. It was a result that had Portadown manager Niall Currie lamenting the performance of his side, “The bottom line is, Itake responsibility, that’s the worst without doubt the biggest disappointing performance I've seen from any of my teams in a very long time. We didn’t do anything for our supporters tonight and that’s what the big disappoint for me is, we had a good crowd out tonight and that there was totally unacceptable.
In their first real raid on the Portadown goal, Bangor took the lead on thirteen minutes when a close range shot from Boyd beat McCarey at his near post, but the ball came back off the upright for the unmarked Cushnie to tap home into an empty net.
The home side came close to levelling the game on twenty-two minutes from Teelan’s corner to the back post, but neither MacKinnon nor Wilson could get the vital touch on the ball. Just after the half hour mark James Teelan cut in from the right down racing goalwards down the byline and seemed to have been upended in the box, but referee Evan Boyce pointed to the corner. It was the first of three corners in quick succession which led to the Ports equalising goal. At the third time of asking Bangor keeper Gareth Dean clawed at the ball but it dropped at the feet of Eamon Fyfe, and the Ports striker fired home through a melee of players.
The visitors were only behind for five minutes, and it was their captain Reece Neale who fired them back in front. Portadown gave away a needless free kick twenty yards out when Altintop felled Cushnie after he had lost possession. Neale stepped up and smashed the ball past the despairing dive of Aaron McCarey.
The home side should have been level pegging five minutes before the break when the unmarked Fyfe had a free header six yards from goal, but he somehow managed to pull his header wide of the far post.
The result was all but put to bed four minutes after the restart of the second period. Steven McCullough was all too easily beaten to a long ball and Liam Hassin on the edge of the box moved the ball from his right foot to left before giving McCarey no chance with an unstoppable thunderbolt.
The match threatened to boil over on seventy-six minutes when a massed brawl ended with three yellow cars being dished out to Ryan Mayse, Ben Wylie and Oisin Devlin. From the resultant free kick Neale swung the ball into the box and Haughey stole in to loop a header over the head of the Ports keeper.
Eamon Fyfe had two excellent chances to reduce the arrears, but he inexplicably chose to play a sideways pass with the goal at his mercy and a minute later he got in behind the Bangor defence, but the keeper got done well to block the ball.
Many of the home fans had already left at this stage but a section of those that remained chose to vent their frustrations, with boos echoing around the home stand at the final whistle.
Portadown now have the worst defensive record in the league with twenty goals conceded in just eight games and for Niall Currie this worrying trend was a cause for concern, “I think our defensive record was as good as any team’s last year, but the goals we are conceding at the minute are killing us. We had really, really poor performances across the back, we had a lot of poor performances, in fact I would probably go to say we carried seven or eight players tonight.
We had far too many players with no shows tonight. I apologise to our supporters.”
Portadown: McCarey, Wilson (Gibson), Altintop, MacKinnon. Chapman, McCullough, Wylie, Thompson (Tulloch), Teelan (Obhakhan), Fyfe, Annett (Mayse). Subs: Moore, Isamala, Adams
Bangor: Deane, Neale, Haughey, Hassin, Mulvenna, Arthurs (Osew), Cushnie (Garrett), Lynch, Francis, Boyd (Morgan), Devlin (O’Mahony). Subs: Solis-Grogan, Owens, McGuniness