Goals from Lee Bonis, Stephen Teggart and Sammie McLeod sealed a superb 3-2 comeback win for Portadown from 2-0 down on Saturday afternoon against Warrenpoint Town at Milltown.
The game was very much an important one for both sides who were struggling to pick up results, with Warrenpoint Town making 2 changes from their 1-0 defeat to Cliftonville last Saturday, with Dermot McVeigh and Thomas Maguire replacing Dan Byrne and Ben Mullen in the starting line up.
Portadown made 6 changes from last Saturdays 4-1 defeat to Dungannon Swifts at Shamrock Park with Jethren Barr, Adam McCallum, Barney McKeown, Chris Lavery, Oisin Conaty and Nathan Kerr coming in for Harry Doherty, Oran Jackson, George Tipton, Sam Warde, Sammie McLeod and Sam Glenfield.
On 3 minutes the home side had an opportunity when Luke Gallagher had a header go wide of the post from a corner.
On 7 minutes Portadowns Stephen Teggart, who was advancing down the right side, had a shot from range saved by Conor Mitchell.
On 27 minutes Warrenpoint would go a goal in front, when a Dermot McVeigh long ball found Greg Moorhouse, who outmuscled Paul Finnegan to stick the ball in the back of the net.
On 30 minutes, Thomas Maguire had a looping header easily saved by Jethren Barr after the Cliftonville loanee had been teed up by Greg Moorhouse.
On 38 minutes Lee Bonis had a header from a good position cleared by Dermot McVeigh after a cross to the far post by Chris Lavery.
Half time score:
Warrenpoint Town 1 (Moorhouse 27’)
Portadown 0
On 46 minutes, Ports midfielder Michael Ruddy had a shot go well over the bar from distance, after picking up a headed clearance by Point defender Luke Gallagher.
On 47 minutes the hosts would be presented with a opportunity to double their lead, when Ports defender Adam McCallum took down Thomas Maguire in the box. Kealan Dillon would stick the resulting penalty in the top corner to make it 2-0 to Warrenpoint Town.
On 54 minutes,it should have been 3-0 to Warrenpoint when Greg Moorhouse dispossessed Adam McCallum which allowed the former Glenavon man through one on one with Jethren Barr, however Moorhouse failed to hit the target with his effort.
On 67 minutes after a sustained bit of pressure, the Ports would get a goal back when Lee Bonis finished substitute Adam Salleys cross into the bottom corner for his first league goal of the campaign.
On 71 minutes the game would be level, Stephen Teggart fired a shot into the bottom left corner from just inside the box after receiving an attempted Warrenpoint clearance. Credit must go to substitute Adam Salley in the goals this afternoon.
As Portadown pushed for the goal that would give them the lead, Sammie McLeod had a shot on the vollley go over the bar following a corner on 74 minutes.
On 85 minutes Portadowns Adam Salley found space to run at the Warrenpoint goal before having his shot denied by a diving Conor Mitchell save.
From the resulting corner Portadown would have that third goal they pushed so hard for, with Sammie McLeod heading past the keeper to spark jubilant scenes amongst the travelling Ports supporters.
After three minutes of stoppage time the referee blew the full time whistle to secure a hard earned three points for the men in red.
Full time score:
Warrenpoint Town 2 (Moorhouse 27’, Dillon (P) 48’)
Portadown 3 (Bonis 67’, Teggart 71’, McLeod 85’)
Match Officials:
Referee – Shane Andrews
Assistant 1 – Stephen Donaldson Assistant 2 – Jamie Carnduff
4th official – Glenn Buchanan
With no scheduled league fixture next Saturday, we are back in action against Ballinamallard United on the 13th October in the League Cup. Kick off will be at 7:45pm.
Warrenpoint Town (managed by Barry Gray): 1.Mitchell (GK), 3.Ball, 6.McVeigh, 7.Dillon (scorer 48’), 10.McCaffery (C) booked 68’), 11.Gallagher, 17.Wade-Slater, 19.Moorhouse (scorer 27’), (booked 77’), 20.Maguire (replaced by O’Sullivan 69’), 22.Hutchinson, 23.Leddy
Warrenpoint Town substitutes: 21.Coleman (GK) (unused), 2.Deasy (unused), 8.O’Connor (unused), 9.O’Sullivan, 14.Mullen (unused), 16.Dunne (unused), 18.Masterson (unused)
Portadown XI (managed by Matthew Tipton): 19.Barr (GK), 2.Hall, 3.Ruddy (booked 50’), 4.McCallum, 5.Finnegan, 6.McKeown (replaced by McLeod 59’, scorer 85’, booked 90’), 7.Lavery (replaced by Salley 65’), 10.Bonis (C) (scorer 67’), 14.Conaty, 15.Kerr, 20.Teggart (scorer 71’)
Portadown substitutes: 13.Brown (GK) (unused), 8.Tipton (unused), 9.Salley, 11.Anderson (unused), 22.McLeod (scorer 86’), 23.Warde (unused), 24.Glenfield (unused)
Written by Alex Morrison.