Ports knock Glens Oval and Out
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Portadown took all three points and were worthy winners with a display that had Currie beaming with pride, “I thought the players were magnificent today, absolutely brilliant. Our performance was as good as it has been at any stage this season” Glentoran manager Declan Devine declared that his team “were not at it”. In a first half totally dominated by Portadown, Devine made it clear, “Our first half performance was unacceptable… We were nowhere near the level we had been in recent weeks”
The visitors limited the home side to a couple of half chances in the first half, and as Currie admitted his side should have been two or three goals ahead at the break. Much of the credit for a goalless first period is down to Glentoran goalkeeper Daniel Gyollai. On fifteen minutes he blocked a shot from Josh Ukek and three minutes later he was at fill stretch to turn away a header from Baris Altintop. Indeed, it took Glentoran forty-one minutes to pose a serious threat on the Portadown goal, when Donnelly lost his marker and cut into the box. The former Cliftonville striker's scuffed effort deceived McCarey, but Altintop was on hand to clear the lines.Josh Ukek created all sorts of problems for Glentoran with his strong running and on twenty-three minutes he curled an effort just over the bar and from a McCullough free kick his goal bound effort was diverted past the post.
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Hide AdGlentoran rang the changes in the second period, but the game continued in much the same pattern as the first half. Ten minutes after the restart Hvid gave the ball away and McCartan pounced to set up Mayse, but the diminutive striker's shot was knocked away by Gyollai. In the last fifteen minutes the unmarked Donnelly saw his weak header easily dealt with by McCarey and two minutes later Jenkins hit his attempt on goal straight at the keeper.With nine minutes remaining on the clock Obhakhan had a great opportunity to open the scoring but his lob over the keeper just failed to drop under the crossbar. Much had been said before the game about The Ports ability to keeper pressing for the full ninety minutes and beyond, and a surging run by McCartan eight minutes from time saw him clipped by Sule and as he stubbled further contact by Connolly sent him to ground. After a brief pause referee Christopher Morrison pointed to the spot. No-one was taking the ball away from McCartan and the former Glentoran star stepped up to cooly slot his spot kick home. With time running out Connolly found space in the Ports box, but his shot was saved by McCarey. Then with the five added minutes about to expire Wylie disposed Amos and slid the ball across to the back post for the inrushing Ryan Mayse to wrap up the points. It is a result that saw Portadown move to within two points of second place in the table, but Niall Currie is determined to stick to his pre-season target of consolidating his side’s place in the topflight and anything after is a bonus.

Glentoran: Gyollai, Hvid, Kane, Sule, Connolly, Palmer(Jenkins), Donnelly, Fisher (Aouachria), Amos, Wightman, Thorndike(Douglas). Unused subs: Mills, Murphy, Lindsay, Lyons-Foster.Portadown: McCarey, Altintop, MacKinnon, Chapman, Mayse, McCullough, Fyfe, Ukek(Wylie), Obhakhan, McCartan(Henderson), Thompson. Unused subs: Ray, D Wilson, McElroy, Riley, Mullan