The Danske Bank Premiership returns after a fortnights hiatus, or in Portadown’s case a 3 week break, as we travel to the Loughshore Arena for the second time this season to take on Carrick Rangers, kick off 3pm.

Carrick Rangers, like ourselves, haven’t kicked a ball since 2nd January 2021 when they were beaten 3-0 by Coleraine at the Showgrounds and due to the ongoing pandemic and the issues around that they have only managed nine Premiership games since the campaign kicked off on 17 October.

The last time the two clubs met was back on 10 November 2020 when Carrick ran out impressive 4-1 winners after Portadown had taken the lead via a Chris Lavery header, this victory incidentally is Carrick’s only win this season meaning they’re propping up the Danske Bank Premiership table currently with 4 points.

Portadown have a wretched recent record at the Loughshore Hotel Arena losing the last five with our last victory in Carrickfergus coming back in April 2016 when a last gasp Garry Breen strike went a long way to securing our Premiership safety that season.

Carrick Rangers manager and Portadown native Niall Currie is of course no stranger to the men from Shamrock Park having managed the club between 2016 and 2018 and his squad can boast ex Ports in the shape of Aaron Hogg and Liam McKenna as well as recent acquisitions Chris Ramsey and Portsmouth loanee and ex Ports midfielder Gerard Storey while on the other side of the coin current Ports centre back Paddy McNally enjoyed a spell at Carrick Rangers between 2016 and 2018 while Adam Salley also had a loan spell at Carrick Rangers when he was at Linfield.

Since Portadown’s last Danske Bank Premiership game, a 2-1 defeat against Glentoran on 2 January 2021, manager Matthew Tipton has added Gareth Buchanan from Banbridge Rangers, Sam Warde from Galway United and Jacob Carney on loan from Manchester United with all three keen to the impress the coaching staff this week and make their debuts on Saturday.

Portadown manager Matthew Tipton spoke to the Portadown media team ahead of tomorrows game and had the following to say:

After yet another break we are looking forward to getting back on the pitch tomorrow. We’ve had a good week together on the pitch with the new players gelling well with the rest of the squad & it’s now a case of producing a performance on the pitch tomorrow. This is the beginning of a run of Saturday-Tuesday games for probably the rest of the season so we will need the full squad to be fit & ready to go at anytime & barring our long term injuries we now have everyone fully fit physically.

 

Saturdays game will be live via https://www.247.tv/niprem at a cost of £7.50

The officials are – Referee – Ross Dunlop / Assistant 1 – Mark O’Brien  / Assistant 2 – Gavin Hegarty / 4th official – Niall Gallagher

 

Form (LAST FIVE ALL COMPETITIONS – MOST RECENT GAME FIRST)

  • Carrick Rangers – W, L, L, L, L (12th in DBP)
  • Portadown –  L, D, W, L, L (10th in DBP)

 

Last Five Head to Head (All competitions)

  • Tuesday 10 November 2020 – Carrick Rangers 4 (Loughran, Smith x3) Portadown 1 (Lavery)
  • Tuesday 30 April 2019 – Carrick Rangers 2 (McCallum og, Nixon) Portadown 0
  • Saturday 27 April 2019 – Carrick Rangers 4 (McGeown, Strain x2, McMillen) Portadown 0
  • Saturday 9 March 2019 – Portadown 2 (Bradley, Salley) Carrick Rangers 2 (Loughran x2)
  • Saturday 22 December 2018 – Carrick Rangers 2 (Kelly, Smith) Portadown 0

 

Last Five Head to Head at the Loughshore Arena (All competitions)

  • Tuesday 10 November 2020 – Carrick Rangers 4 (Loughran, Smith x3) Portadown 1 (Lavery)
  • Tuesday 30 April 2019 – Carrick Rangers 2 (McCallum og, Nixon) Portadown 0
  • Saturday 27 April 2019 – Carrick Rangers 4 (McGeown, Strain x2, McMillen) Portadown 0
  • Saturday 22 December 2018 – Carrick Rangers 2 (Kelly, Smith) Portadown 0
  • Saturday 18 March 2017 – Carrick Rangers 3 (Hazley og, M.Murray, T.Murray) Portadown 2 (Soares x2)

 

You may also wish to catch the first episode of our brand new #WeArePortsTV YouTube show ‘The Preview Show’, in this weeks show host Dave Wiggins is joined by Neil Campbell and News Letter journalist Patrick Van Dort to preview Saturdays game against Carrick Rangers.