Tipton (2) Martyn (1)

Portadown once again proved they can rise to the big occasion when they defeated a struggling Glentoran side this afternoon at Shamrock Park.  The Glens fielded a number of youngsters in their starting eleven, leaving out the experienced Boyce, Clarke and Hamilton.  

With a gale force wind behind them in the first half, the Ports lead siege to the Glentoran goals but had nothing to show for all their possession; a combination of both poor finishing and good goalkeeping from Elliott Morris. 

It was the Glens that broke the deadlock in the 15th minute, against the run of play, when the Ports were punished for failing to clear their lines and Ciaran Martyn pounced to stab the ball home past a stranded Miskelly.  The Ports piled forward in search of an equaliser, with Matty Tipton hitting a post with a curling effort and Kevin Braniff and Jamie Tomelty testing Elliott Morris from long range.

The second half saw more of the same, with the Ports dominating much of the possession playing into the strong wind.  Colin Nixon continued to keep Matty Tipton at bay, although he was rightly penalised a number of times by ref Alan Black for persistent holding down when challenging for high balls.  The Glens failed to take advantage of the strong wind at their backs and were pegged back in their own half for most of the 45 minutes, relying instead on the counter attack through the pace of Darren Boyce and Martin Murray.

As the Ports struggled to find a way through the resilient Glens defence, Ronnie McFall literally threw caution to the wind and replaced Sean Mackle with Richard Lecky with 20 minutes to go.  Leckys height in the box immediately started to cause problems for the Glens and Matty Tipton took advantage to snatch the equaliser 15 minutes from the end with a close range tap in from an O’Hara cross.  Tipton sealed the victory with a similar second goal when he pounced on a Gartland header into the six yard box to turn the ball past Morris from close range and send the Ports fans into raptures.

Loading Images