Portadown make the trip to Windsor Park this afternoon to take on the reigning Premiership champions, Linfield. Kick off 3pm

The last time the two sides met was in January 2025 with Linfield winning 3-1 at Shamrock Park thanks to a Joel Cooper hat-trick within the opening 26 minutes.  For the last meeting at Windsor Park, it’s November 2024 with Linfield picking up the three points in a 2-1 win thanks to a Chris McKee brace with Paul McElroy replying for the Ports.

In total Portadown and Linfield met on three occasions in the Sports Direct Premiership last season with Linfield securing the two afore mentioned victories while the first game of the season between the two ended in a 2-2 draw at Shamrock Park in August 2024 with a 95th minute equaliser from Ryan Mayse securing a point for Niall Currie’s men.

Linfield secured their 57th league title last season at a canter, wrapping the title up with 6 games to go and have added to the squad in the summer transfer window to try and hold on to the Gibson Cup, with Isaac Baird, Sean Brown, Sam Taylor and Matty Yates coming in to bolster David Healy’s options. The biggest talking point of the summer however was the departure of Linfield talisman, Joel Cooper to Coleraine while also departing Windsor Park were Stephen Fallon, Ethan Devine and Matthew Orr amongst others.  Due to their European exploits the Blues have only two Premiership games under their belt this season but can boast a 100% record with wins over Dungannon Swifts and Cliftonville.

Portadown’s recent league record against Linfield at the Windsor Park makes for miserable reading with only one win in the last twenty three, that coming back in February 2015 with a 88th minute strike from Sean Mackle securing a 2-1 victory for Ronnie McFall’s men and banking our first league win there since a Gary Hamilton goal saw the Ports win 1-0 back in February 2002.

Linfield have a superb recent home record, winning 15 of their last 16 on home soil while keeping 10 clean sheets in the process. They are also unbeaten in their last 7 home league games against the Ports, scoring 18 goals into the bargain with blues midfielder Chris McKee scoring three goals in his last three games at Windsor Park against Portadown.

On the game Portadown manager, Niall Currie commented

I hope everyone is excited for the game as I believe when you go to Windsor Park you’ve got to love the occasion and embrace it and hopefully that’s exactly what we do.

We’ve had good news this week on Rayhann (Tulloch) and Rabbi (Minzamba) as they have rejoined the squad for full training, today might come a bit soon for them but certainly it’s a huge plus for everyone to have them in contention again. We’re also delighted to learn that following x-rays, Josh Ukek’s injury isn’t as bad as first feared and he should be back in training in a couple of weeks however he misses out today along with Shay (McCartan) which is a huge blow, but it is what it is and we’ll get on with it. We’re also of course without Rhys Annett as he can’t play against his parent club.

No-one expects us to get anything from today but this is football, and this is the beauty of football and we’ll go to Windsor and give it a real rattle.

 

Referee | Declan Hassan

Tickets | Match Tickets – Linfield Football Club

 

Last Five | Head to Head

18 January 2025 | Portadown 1 (Minzamba) Linfield 3 (Cooper 3)

30 November 2024 | Linfield 2 (McKee 2) Portadown 1 (McElroy)

30 August 2024 | Portadown 2 (Obhakhan, Mayse) Linfield 2 (Fitzpatrick 2)

10 March 2024 | Linfield 3 (Hall, L.Wilson OG, Annett) Portadown 1 (Fyfe)

28 January 2023 | Portadown 1 (McNally) Linfield 6 (Vertainen 3, Cooper 2, McKee)

 

Last Five | Windsor Park:

30 November 2024 | Linfield 2 (McKee 2) Portadown 1 (McElroy)

14 August 2022 | Linfield 4 (Millar, Devine, Vertainen, Clarke) Portadown 0

19 February 2022 | Linfield 1 (McKee) Portadown 0

2 February 2021 | Linfield 3 (Lavery 3) Portadown 0

17 February 2017 | Linfield 1 (Carson) Portadown 1 (Foley)