Soccer

Ports storm City to secure first league win of the season

Portadown players celebrate after Jordan Jenkins scores their third goal in yesterday's Danske Bank Premiership win over Newry City at the Showgrounds Picture: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker.
Portadown players celebrate after Jordan Jenkins scores their third goal in yesterday's Danske Bank Premiership win over Newry City at the Showgrounds Picture: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker. Portadown players celebrate after Jordan Jenkins scores their third goal in yesterday's Danske Bank Premiership win over Newry City at the Showgrounds Picture: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker.

Danske Bank Premiership: Newry City 1 Portadown 3

Portadown secured their first league win of the season with a spectacular second half show against Newry, which featured a contender for goal of the season from Greg Moorhouse.

Niall Currie's men were without a goal in the Premiership since October 15 - almost two weeks before the new manager's appointment - but three second half strikes, the second a spectacular effort from Moorhouse, sealed the three points.

The Ports are still three points behind second-from-bottom Dungannon and 11 points adrift of Newry, but for manager Currie it feels like they have turned a corner.

“I’ve told the boys that since I came in ‘one win changes everything’,” Currie said.

“It changes morale, it changes changing rooms, it changes attitudes. We’re trying to get the players to believe. It’s been a real, long hard season for them and they’ve suffered most of the season, but hopefully that gives them a real lift.

“You enjoy every single win in this league. We know we’re in a real traumatic situation at the minute, but with that wee bit of application we got from the players today, there’s still a wee bit of fight left in us.”

It was a scrappy first half in what Darren Mullen's 350th match in charge of Newry City.

In the end, the only bright note for the home side was the return of forward John McGovern from injury, his second half strike proving to be little more than a consolation.

"John coming back is a massive boost," Mullen said.

"He showed what he can do – the speed, the control and the finish is everything that is good about John, so hopefully that’s a good sign for us moving forward."

Thomas Lockhart had flashed a shot wide on 20 minutes before striking the first shot on target effort, a tame enough effort that was easily gathered by Jethren Barr in the Portadown goal.

As the game entered first half injury, it was the visitors who looked most likely to make a breakthrough.

Skipper Patrick McNally headed just over from Reece Jordan's corner and minutes later, another corner created havoc in the Newry defence with Moorhouse seeing his shot cleared off the line by Darren King.

However, it was from a corner early in the second half that the visitors took the lead.

Barney McKeown got his head to Jordan's delivery on 47 minutes. His effort was blocked but the loose ball fell to Lee Upton who poked it past Stephen Maguire

Portadown pressed for a second and almost got it when Jordan Jenkins had a shot saved by Maguire and Moorhouse's follow-up effort was cleared off the line by Stephen Moan.

But Moorhouse finally had the goal his industry deserved and it came in spectacular fashion on 67 minutes.

A headed clearance fell to him around 40 yards and, spotting the keeper off his line, he thumped a volley to the net.

Newry's response was to immediately spring John McGovern and Jamie Clarke, but it was Donal Rocks who almost got them back into it, his shot from the edge of the box smartly saved by Jethren Barr.

Portadown capitalised on a goalkeeping error to seal the points with a third on 80 minutes, a mix-up between Maguire and Ryan McGivern allowing Jenkins to nip in and finish to an empty net.

McGovern gave the home side a lifeline two minutes, scoring on his return from injury, but Newry couldn't add to that and things got worse when experienced centre-back McGivern was red carded for adjudging to have denied Jenkins a clear run on goal.

Elsewhere, Cliftonville's title challenge took a hit as Ballymena were 4-1 winners at the Showgrounds. Former Red Davy McDaid grabbed the first and last goals of the game. His opener on 36 minutes was followed by strikes from Kym Nelson (53) and Joshua Kelly (55) as the Braidmen took a 3-0 lead.

Ronan Hale pulled one back for the visitors on 70 minutes before McDaid added his second 10 minutes from time.

Cliftonville's League Cup semi-final opponents Coleraine warmed up for Tuesday night's tie with a 2-0 win at home to Dungannon Swifts, early goals from Matthew Shevlin and Conor McDermott doing the trick.

Champions Linfield continued their recent revival with a 3-1 victory over Carrick Rangers at Windsor Park. Two first half goals from Eetu Vertainen gave them a 2-0 half-time lead.

Ben Tilney pulled one back on 80 minutes for the visitors but an injury time strike from Robbie McDaid in injury time sealed the points.