The Red Terrace

Portadown fans arrived down in East Belfast hoping for a win over their rivals. With little excitement on the pitch and neither side threatening to go ahead a very dull first half finished 0-0. For the second game running the Ports failed to turn up after the restart with Glentoran going two ahead early in the second half, in a case of deja vu. Two pairs of fresh legs came on in Richard Lecky and Ryan McCluskey but the Ports failed to grab a goal back and Glentoran ran out 2-0 winners. Next up though is the last league game of the season at home to Linfield in a 'dress rehearsal'  for the big game on May 8th.

After Saturday's dismal defeat the Ports were looking to bounce back against the Hatchetmen, in front of a poor crowd for the less significant match. The Ports started off with a bang and a strike in the second minute via Johnny Topley's sweet left foot put the home side ahead. Further chances were created and the second goal was grabbed by Topley again with a looping header over Crues keeper Keenan. As half time approached several chances should have resulted in the victory being sealed, but the sides went in with the score at 2-0. Crusaders came out the stronger side and pushed pressure on the home defence, this resulted in David Rainey levelling the scores with two super headers in front of the travelling support. Both teams continued to put pressure on as the final whistle neared but after the excitement of four goals the top six outfits went in with a point apiece.

MOTM - Johnny Topley, two quality goals for the midfielder.

Next up for the Ports is a trip up to the East to face Glentoran, the Belfast side are needing points for European qualification and the wee reds will not be a pushover.

The Ports travelled to Solitude on Saturday to face a Cliftonville side which still are needed to win to keep their faint hope of a league title alive. With the Ports having one eye on the Irish Cup final in 3 weeks, they fielded virtually their reserve team, with Cutchy, Braniff, Redman, A. Teggart, and Clarke all rested and Kelly unable to make the game due to the dust cloud looming over Europe. Fans favourite Neil Teggart was given a rare start alongside injury-prone Wesley Boyle up front.

The game started at a fairly average tempo, with neither team particularly going for the win. Cliftonville took the lead however when Liam Fleming's through ball beat the offside trap resulting in Liam Boyce having a one-on-one with cup semi-final hero David Miskelly, which he cooly converted between the keeper's legs.

That lead didn't last long however, with an Owen Morrison freekick from 45 yards, was headed into his own net by Barry Holland under no pressure from anyone around him. The first neared closer to a finish with sustained pressure from Cliftonville, resulting in two notable chances. A Boyce header skimmed the right post, followed by a superb Ciaran Donaghy header which had Miskelly beaten, but was denied by the woodwork. The teams went in at the break level at 1-1.

Second half started much brighter, with both teams carving out opportunities. A generous handball decision gave Cliftonville a superb chance to take the lead, but George McMullan missed the target with a rasping drive. Cliftonville did then take the lead, when Sean Mackle clumsily tackled Chris Scannell inside the area, leaving McMullan to dispatch the penalty past Miskelly, sending him the wrong way. Both teams pressed late on, but neither team could add to their tally, resulting in the game finishing 2-1 in favour of Cliftonville.

MOTM - David Miskelly

Another inspirational performance from the shot stopper.  

The highly anticipated Irish Cup semi-final between Portadown FC and Ballymena FC took place on Saturday 10th April. The sun was beating down on Windsor Park, which set the right atmosphere to which was predicted to be a tightly fought match played in front of a fairly average crowd. Kick-off was at 5:30pm, rather late, yet still allowed a few of the lads to get a friendly game of football played between themselves at the pitch beside Windsor.

The player's of both sides came out to a chorus of chanting from both sides of the stadium, with a few pyro thrown onto the pitch from the red and white side. The match started off at an even pace, with Portadown and Ballymena matching each other in terms of possession and chances. Andy Smith was giving a warm applause from the Ballymena fans, but was not so welcomely acknowledged by the Portadown fans. Chants rang around the stadium with every touch, showing the same lack of disregard that Smith showed Portadown during his 'short' stint at Shamrock Park. Portadown deservedly took the lead in th 36th minute, when a Braniff wayward shot dropped kindly for an eager Jordan Baker to head home before Ballymena keeper Dwayne Nelson could lay claim to it. The score remained the same for the duration of the first half, sending Portadown in at half-time with a morale boosting lead.

The second half was much a different story, with Ballymena dominating. Ballymena looked more threatening, however Portadown's Kevin Braniff volley from 35 yards nearly dipped in with the keeper caught off guard. Mandy then stunned the Ports, capitilising on a defensive mistake between Redman and Teggart to fire a shot past the hopeless David Miskelly. The rest of the 90 minutes were played at a high pace, with both teams seemingly going for the killer blow, but neither team managing it, resulting in an 30 minutes of extra-time to be played.

The next 30 minutes showed how big an asset Miskelly is to the Portadown team, with an inspired treble save, twice denying Noel Anderson from point-blank range, then diving low to his left to deny Mark Surgenor's effort, much to the delight and relief of the Ports support. A inspired Miskelly was determined to keep the score level, and again saved magnificently to tip a header sure to sneak under the woodwork, over the bar. The score finished level, and the only way left to settle the match was the dreaded penalty shoot-out.

Up first was to be fan's favourite Kevin Braniff. However, a mediocre penalty resulted in the keeper easily saving the spot-kick and giving Ballymena the early physcological advantage. Then Smith, jeered by the Ports support, cooly dispatched his penalty giving Ballymena the lead. Next up stepped Richard Leckey, whose left-footed kick was calmy placed into the top right hand corner. Miskelly then produced another world-class save, with Chris Ramsey on the receiving end. The next four spot-kicks were confidentily dispatched by the four who took them. Johnny Topley, Kevin Kelbie, Andy Hunter and Noel Anderson respectively, left the scores at 3-3. Darren Kelly then stepped up for the Ports, to score what would be the decisive penalty. Aaron Stewart, took Ballymena's final penalty, which much to the delight of the Red's fans, was confidently saved by the superb David Miskelly, who shared his condolences with the young Ballymena player, before celebrating the victory with the rest of his ecstatic team-mates. The Portadown fans were sent into hysterics, and will be looking forward now to 8th May, when Portadown take on Linfield in the Irish Cup Final, which will hopefully be a day to remember for those supporting the men in Red and White.

MOTM - David Miskelly
Astonishing performance from the penalty kicks hero.

           Saturday saw us head off to the land of the sheep to watch the Reds take on second from bottom Ballymena United.  Ballymena hadn't won a match prior to Saturday so naturally from the outset the omens suggested that we were going to get beat.  This match also marked the Ports fans chance to once again see Ulster's 'sexiest' man for the first time in two seasons.

           The Ports started off with both of the two 'big' summer signings not featuring in the starting eleven and Andy Hunter making his first start of the season, much to the delight of the few fans who'd made the trip.   The lads started brightly and dominated for the majority of the first half against a poor Ballymena side.  However, wave after wave of attacks were beaten away by the Ballymena defence and the Ports couldn't seem to make a clinical final pass breakthrough in front of goal.  The Reds also had numerous chances from set pieces, particularly corners, to take the lead but repetitive set pieces didn't provide any worries for the sheep.  In the end it was lack of discipline that would turn out to be our downfall.

           Cornerboy antics from Carson provoked Boyle and as a result both left the pitch for an early shower (it should also be noted that Ulster's 'sexiest' man didn't do much to calm the situation).  The shot from the resulting free-kick somehow managed to hit the back of the net even though it was taken from the halfway give or take a few metres.  The Ports went in 1-0 down at half-time amidst what seemed to be some trouble between the two sides and the ref in the tunnel.

           The second-half, truth be told wasn't much of an improvement either with the lads unable to string three passes together never mind make it out of their own half.  The team then began to loose all sense of shape with Braniff and McCutcheon sinking back into midfield for some unknown reason meaning that any balls that did make it into the opposing half was met by a blue shirt.  Davy McCullough briefly gave the travelling fans something to cheer about when his cool finish made it 1-1...maybe our strike force could ask him for a few tips.

           However, more ill-discipline and madness from the referee lead to us leaving empty handed.  Clarke was handed a second yellow card for what was a clear foul, with the McDonald's employee of the month once again jumping in to try and stir things up just a bit more.  Then the inevitable happened, the sheep went out and scored the winner in injury time.  Another poor piece of defending highlighting our lack of pace at the back allowed Kelbie through to win the match for them.  The day was not a complete loss though with O'Hara dishing out his own form of vigilante justice on the Mr Smith which resulted in him being laid out halfway across the stock car track.

          Next up Coleraine at home, a point would be nice....

Tonight in front of an abysmal home support with a Cliftonville crowd slightly bigger than the average fifty they would normally take up from the slums witnessed a “never say die attitude” from the Portadown team that has been lacking in recent games.  Tonight’s game had all the action expected over a ninety minute period crammed into the last ten minutes of play with Big John Convery turning out to be the Ports hero on the night.

The Ports started off the game brightest but managed to create only a handful of chances one of which was when Cutchy rounded the keeper after beating the off-side trap but a tight angle allowed the keeper to come out on top and edge the ball round he post for a corner.  As the first-half progressed Cliftonville started to get into the game with a number of chances, thankfully they didn’t have their shooting boots on or else the Ports could of been going into half-time a couple down.  0-0 Half Time

The second-half was a balanced affair until Cliftonville went 1-0 up in the 80th minute. Poor defending from the Ports allowed Chris Scannell to beat the off-side trap to face Armstrong one-on-one before making a cool finish to put Cliftonville 1-0 up. Portadown pushed on for the equaliser and they were rewarded for their efforts when an amazing run from Braniff climaxed in a through ball to Cutchy who slotted the ball home much to the delight to the few hundred Portadown fans that were at the game.

The fourth official raised the board with three minutes of added time indicated leaving everyone thinking the game was destined to be a draw.  However, things just weren’t meant to be assimple as that.   The Players had other ideas.   Poor defending again allowed Cliftonville’s  Scannell to head home their second goal much to the delight of the unwashed in the away stand.  Cliftonville would have happily settled for a 2-1 win but Portadown had other ideas, and were awarded a free-kick with sixty seconds left on the clock.  From the resulting free-kick big John leaped like a salmon to head the ball goalwards before hitting the inside of the post causing the whole of the shed end to freeze for a split second until it eventually hit the back of the net, sending the home end into raptures.

Such a great feeling seeing “them lot” stand in disbelief as they thought they had nicked all three points  while standing at the front of the away stand preparing to cheer their team off the pitch to their played out version of St.Pauli’s “we love you”.  However, it was thanks to Big John that their incest party was gate crashed.

            Last night was what football was allabout, just the shame the other 500 or so Portadown ‘regulars’ were not thereto see it.

Nextup a trip an away trip to the sheep shagging Andy Smith loving FC!

Saturday marked a return to the groups preferred mode of travel – the train.  In saying that it was a somewhat mediocre turnout out for the first decent away trip of the season, hopefully something that will improve with time.  In saying that Saturdays’ shenanigans did make for quite good days banter with the lads.

Due to lack of financial resources we headed to Windsor with no pre-planned display, but a trip to Toals pre-match inspired us to make a small display of sorts.  We departed Portadown at one o’clock on the dot (well most of us did) with our bottles of ‘Mi Wadi’ and ‘Sprite’ and kitbags full of goodies for the match. We pulled into Adelaide station around one-forty before commencing our mini-march to the ground much to the bemusement of the bewildered locals.

    After a few minutes of dandering in out of off licences and several flares later we arrived at the ground.  Upon entry a few of the lads raced to the back of the stand with their decorating equipment and wallpaper to prepare the Toals inspired message banner for the game: “Portadown9/1 – Make our weekend!”

As for the match itself the Windsor pitch seems to suit our lads better and gives them more space to pass the ball.  The lads put on an inspired performance and challenged the Blues in all areas of the park. We exploited an obviously aging Linfield defence on numerous occasions and probably should have put away more of the chances that we created, but it wasn’t to be.  It was McCutcheon’s addition to the team on the hour mark in place of Neil Teggart that made the difference.  Cutchy’s controlled finish to a well worked move saw the Ports go one-up after sixty-three minutes.  Queue scenes of madness and the majority of the North stand being covered in a red haze, much to the dislike of some...

   However, it was ultimately their failure to capitalise on past chances and tired legs which resulted in the lads dropping points and had it not been for an inspired performance by Armstrong we could have made the trip back down the M1 with no points at all.

The train home turned out to be an interesting affair as well with seemingly half of the Kop on board headed mainly for Lisburn with the odd one dropping off in Moira and Lurgan.  However, it was friendly banter the whole way down between the two sets of suppoters.  The day was briefly overshadowed by complaints from a few pompous Uni studentswhich resulted in the conductor having to repeatedly tell us to “pipe down or walk home from Lurgan”, a rather harsh punishment don’t you think?  Alas, we called his bluff continued to sing and made it back to God’s country in once piece!

After being robbed, somewhat, of a win on Tuesday night against the Spades I was optimistic of gaining our first win of the season against the men from the North-coast.  However, it wasn't to be.  A combination of long balls to centre-forwards who were nowhere to be seen, an unimaginative midfield and the playing of seemingly unfit players lead to a bore draw.  The Ports performance was dire and frankly unless things change quickly we'll be facing a relegation battle come May rather than a top six finish.

From the outset there was very little sign of breaking a disciplined 'Stute back four who pushed Braniff and Teggart, easily, off the ball all day long.  At the minute Teggart doesn't seem like the renound goal scorer he was supposed to be, but the fact we are only four games into the season can be his saving grace for the moment.

The second half was similar to the first; long balls, indecisive finishing and a less than enthusiastic midfield.  When McCluskey did come on he did seem try an attempt at rallying the troops but it was all in vain.  Teggart?s substitution for McCutcheon also seemed to add some flare to the attack but it was too-little-too-late.  The performance also left me questioning why I?d paid £10 to watch that drivel.

Two points from our first four games and sitting third bottom of the table does not make for pretty reading.  Hopefully McFall & Co. can turn it around and kick-start our season by the end of August starting this Tuesday away to Newry City.

TheSpezialOne