Bright sparks

Portadown 0-2 Cliftonville

Cliftonville lit up Shamrock Park with a hard-working display to get the better of Portadown in this evening’s rearranged Sports Direct Premiership encounter.

Abandoned due to floodlight failure with the Reds 1-0 up a fortnight ago, the visitors reasserted that advantage through Joe Sheridan during an impressive first-half and, though they were forced to do a lot more defending after the interval, Cliftonville got their security goal in the closing stages when an error from Ports keeper Alex Moore led to the lead being doubled.

The same duo had gone head-to-head in the evening’s first big opening when, with 12 minutes on the clock, Hale raced on to a ball down the left and cut inside before sending a curling effort goalward that drew Moore into a good save.

Five minutes later, the Reds were in front when Ryan Curran did well to hold the ball up outside the box before teeing up Sheridan, who found the bottom corner with an accurate first-time drive.

Adamh Towe and Gideon Tetteh both had opportunities blocked inside the box as Portadown went in search of a leveller before Hale went close to making it 2-0 when he got on the end of Liam McStravick’s delivery but stabbed his effort just wide of the post.

Moore then gathered a dangerous ball before Curran could react ahead of the first-half ending with the Ports stopper doing well to turn Josh Kelly’s header over the top.

Having bossed the majority of the play in the opening 45 minutes, Cliftonville were forced to show a different side of their game in the second-half and were fortunate that Divin Isamala didn’t make a cleaner connection with an Eamon Fyfe cross.

That said, keeper PJ Morrison was never called upon to do more than the basics but the Reds were in desperate need of a second goal to wrap things up – and it duly arrived five minutes from time when Hale floated in a free-kick that Moore looked to have gathered only to drop the ball, leading to the assistant referee to flag that it had crossed the line.

Cliftonville: Morrison, Toole, Addis, Leppard, Glynn, J Kelly, Sheridan, Robertson (McCay, 75 mins) Hale (Pepper, 89 mins), McStarvick (Hawthorne, 67 mins), Curran (Carroll, 89 mins). Unused subs: Ridd, Gormley, A Kelly.