Portadown are back in Danske Bank Premiership action tomorrow afternoon (Sat 17 December) when we take on Cliftonville at Solitude, kick off 3pm.

Cliftonville come into the game off the back of a free weekend as their game, scheduled for last Saturday (10 Dec) against Linfield, was postponed due to Linfield’s involvement in the SPFL Trust Trophy – prior to that though the Reds lost out on penalties to Coleraine in the League Cup semi final and in Premiership matters were on the end of a 4-1 defeat to Ballymena United at the Showgrounds on Saturday 3 December. Portadown arrive at Solitude following a 1-0 win over Ballymena United at Shamrock Park last Saturday.

The last time the two clubs met was at Shamrock Park back in September with Cliftonville running out 2-1 winners thanks to goals from Ronan Hale and Ryan Curran with Jordan Jenkins on the scoresheet for the Ports. Portadown’s last visit to Solitude was back in November 2021 with Cliftonville running out 4-0 winners thanks to goals from Joe Gormley (2), a Ryan Curran penalty & a Paul Finnegan OG.

Portadown have a wretched recent record at Solitude losing the last nine and are without a victory over Cliftonville home or away in their last 20 meetings in all competitions – the last win over Cliftonville came back in January 2014 thanks to a Gary Twigg goal at Solitude – this actually being Portadown’s last goal at Solitude

Portadown manager Niall Currie had the following preview to give ahead of tomorrows game

We understand what a difficult day it is going to be tomorrow against a top top team at their place but as always all I want to do is focus on ourselves and our levels to be the best that they can be and make sure they’re at the level they’ve been for the last two or three games.

We’re over the moon with the attitude, enthusiasm, passion and desire that we’ve shown the past three games and all I ask is that continues. We’ve shown that we can hurt teams, we’ve showed that we can compete and battle and that has to continue.

We go to Solitude tomorrow, and this is the beauty of football, they are odds on favourites and expected to turn us over no problem but the bottom line is if we’re at our very best we can compete and that’s all we can do, we’ll give them a game.

It’s about small margins in games, so if we can keep it nice and tight and stay in the game then we know we’ll create chances and have a few chances in the game but we need to be at our very very best.

We’re over the moon with the progression over these past two or three weeks and the spirit is great among the squad, it’s a very young squad but with that you get a lot of pluses, so we want to go down there tomorrow and give a great account of ourselves for the supporters


The officials are Referee – Tim Marshall / Assistant 1 – Stephen Bell / Assistant 2 – Kristian Hanna / 4th official – Diarmuid Harrigan

 

The game is all ticket with tickets available via https://www.tickets.cliftonvillefc.net/ticket_centre – Please note tickets for the game are the responsibility of Cliftonville FC with any issue or queries e-mailed to tickets@cliftonvillefc.net

Supporters Clubs Travelling

  • Eden Reds leaving Gary’s Bar at 1:45pm
  • Richhill Reds leaving Richhill at 1:30pm and picking up in Portadown at 1:40pm
  • PFC Travel Club leaving Shamrock Park at 1:30pm & Tiplers at 1:45pm

 

Last Five Head to Head (All competitions)

  • Saturday 3 September 2022 – Portadown 1 (Jenkins) Cliftonville 2 (Ronan Hale, R.Curran)
  • Tuesday 5 April 2022 – Portadown 0 Cliftonville 2 (Gormley x2)
  • Saturday 11 December 2021 – Portadown 1 (S.Teggart) Cliftonville 1 (O’Neill)
  • Tuesday 9 November 2021 – Portadown 1 (Bonis) Cliftonville 2 (Doherty, Kearns)
  • Tuesday 2 November 2021 – Cliftonville 4 (Gormley x2, Finnegan OG, R.Curran (P)) Portadown 0


Last Five Head to Head at Solitude (All competitions)

  • Tuesday 2 November 2021 – Cliftonville 4 (Gormey (2), Finnegan OG, R.Curran (pen)) Portadown 0
  • Saturday 28th November 2020 – Cliftonville 5 (McCrudden x3, O’Connor x2)  Portadown 0
  • Saturday 28 January 2017 – Cliftonville 3 (Winchester, J.Donnelly, Curran) Portadown 0
  • Saturday 10 December 2016 – Cliftonville 1 (Breen OG) Portadown 0
  • Saturday 30 January 2016 – Cliftonville 1 (J.Donnelly) Portadown 0