Match: Portadown
Comp : CPL, Date: 26/4/08, Venue: The Oval

3	1

An additional 2.02 minutes was played in the first half with an extra 1.47 minutes in the second.

Does anybody know how we didn’t hammer the Ports by eight or nine goals today? Answers on a postcard please.

We scored three, had three definite penalty appeals turned down and had three efforts kicked off the line. Alan McDonald undoubtedly sent the team out to attack from the kick off. We could even have scored four times before Andy Smith put the visitors a goal up in the seventh minute.

However it took 42 seconds into the second half for us to break our duck - Michael Halliday hitting home from 12 yards with the ball trickling over the line.

We continued to pulverise the Ports and the second came after 62 minutes when Gary Hamilton banged in a ground shot off the post. Daryl Fordyce headed home the last in the 74 minute.

Another season over, another second place. This season seems to have lasted about three weeks. It seems no time since the pre season friendlies – I must be getting old. It’ll be no time before the UEFA Cup comes around again and let’s hope we play our home game at the Oval.

Have a great summer, recharge your batteries and let’s look forward to a more trophy laden season next time around.

   Norman Reid

Team sheets here

#	Player	Fouls & Saves	Shots on target	Shots off target	Headers on target	Headers off target	Caught off-side	Hit Wood work
1	Elliott Morris	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Colin Nixon	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Kyle Neill	-	3	4	-	-	-	2
4	Jason Hill	1	1	-	-	-	-	-
5	Leeman	1	-	-	1	2	-	1
6	S McCabe	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Sean Ward	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	--------------------	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	Halliday	1	1 [g]	1	-	1	1	-
10	Hamilton	2	1 [g]	-	-	-	-	-
11	Scullion	-	-	2	1	-	2	-
12	D Boyce	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	--------------------	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	Fitzgerald	-	2	-	-	-	-	-
15	--------------------	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16	Ryan Berry	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
17	--------------	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
18	M Dougherty	4	-	-	-	-	-	-
19	Carson	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20	Glendinning	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
21	McMenamin	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
22	Simpson	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
23	J McGovern	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
24	Peter Steele	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
25	D Fordyce	2	1	1	1 [g]	-	-	-
31	Drummond	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
18	C Keenan [gk]	3	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	Goals from set Piece:	Corner	-	Free kick	-	Throw-in	-	********
#	*******	Fouls & Saves	Shots on target	Shots off target	Headers on target	Headers off target	Caught off-side	Hit Wood work

* = INCLUDES SHOTS ON TARGET, = yellow card, = straight red card, mp = missed penalty

So close, but yet so far!!!!!………..However the gap is quickly closing!!!!!

Glentoran 3 Portadown 1

The Glens finished the season with a comprehensive victory and a league double (When did we last do that?) over a very poor Portadown side, but in the end the result wasn’t enough to stop Linfield retaining the Irish Premier League, but this 2nd half of the season will serve as a warning to our rivals leaving them in no doubt that that the recent gap they have created is getting closer very quickly.

The end of the season also left many supporters wondering what might have been, had it not have been for a poor December that saw defeats against Limavady United and Cliftonville ending with that home defeat against Ballymena United on New Year’s day, the last time the Glens tasted defeat in the League.

Before the game Jason Hill was presented with the Castlereagh GSC Player of the year award for his consistent endeavour and performances in the left back berth (remember he’s a striker).

The game saw a debut for on-loan keeper Chris Keenan, and Jamie McGovern deputised for the injured Colin Nixon.

The Glens made their intentions clear from the start of a game that was to see 20 attempts on goal.

The game was barely a minute old when Scullion should have given the Glens the lead but dragged his effort wide from 6 yards after being set up by Hamilton. Moments later a ball into the box was laid off by Halliday to Neill who did well to produce a side-footed effort that evaded the Portadown keeper, but struck the post. Where the Glens going to get an early goal? Scullion thought he had for the Glens, but he saw his effort saved by Miskelly in the Portadown goal.

Then there was a real sucker punch, when Portadown took an undeserved lead. After being awarded a free kick, for what, the referee only knew why, Portadown won a corner that a nervous looking Glen’s defence failed to clear properly, the ball falling to Smith whose scuffed effort beat the unsighted Keenan to give Portadown a 1-0 lead after 7 minutes.

The Glens rallied coming close on a couple of occasions but it was a Neill effort that should levelled the score at the mid-point of the half when on embarking on a run, which saw the Portadown defence back off resulting in a rasping drive by Neill that rebounded off the upright into the path of Halliday who will have been disappointed not to hit the target, his effort going past the opposite upright.

The Glens pressure was telling and Portadown were lucky not to concede two penalties after challenges on Scullion in quick succession, however the referee was very quick to dismiss these stonewall claims.

The Glens were to suffer an injury blow on the half-hour when the consistent McCabe (who has made such an impact at the Oval since his arrival in January 2008) appeared to twist an ankle and was replaced by Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald had an immediate impact however, when he burst into the box only to see his goal-bound effort blocked by a Portadown hand, but yet again no penalty awarded.

Then just before half time Smith again endeared himself to the home support with a off the ball (well after!!!!) incident with Ward who was left on a heap on the ground. Keenan and Hamilton were both booked for their protests. Unbelievably Smith only received a yellow card, instead of a red. What the assistant saw we don’t quite know.

Half-Time Glentoran 0 Portadown 1
The Glens looked fired up after the break, and it was Fitzgerald who was the provider for Halliday (13th goal of the season) who swept the ball past the Portadown keeper to deservedly equalise on 46 minutes.
More penalty claims came and went (couldn’t keep count), but on the hour mark the Glens took a more than deserved lead when Halliday set up Hamilton to rifle home off the post from an acute angle to make it 2-1 and score 29 in 45 games for the East Belfast side this season. Gary is just 3 short of his 100th appearance for the Club netting 67 times.
Five minutes later, Portadown were reduced to 10 men when Gary Hamilton, was brought down by Craig on the edge of the box after being put clear by Halliday. Such was the power of Neill’s resulting free kick that it felled the Portadown keeper with play being stopped, and Redman clearing off the line.
Portadown were living a charmed life with Neill being denied again by the combination of the keeper who parried the effort and Redman who again cleared off the line.
Boyce, who came on for Scullion (who has had a poor season, perhaps the break will do him good, and maybe he will fulfil his undoubted potential next season); Boyce was to be instrumental in the Glens 3rd goal, his cross to the far post producing a powerful header by Fordyce (to finish with a creditable 13 goals for the season) to make it 3-1 after 74 minutes.
Fitzgerald and Neill also went close in the closing stages, but the score remained 3-1 (it could have been double figures).
So another seasons over, and it all starts again on 16th July. Can’t wait.
Had a quick look at the last 7 season league performances (Stand to be corrected here) but for all Linfield so-called dominance, they are only 3 points better off than us over that time (The difference between success and failure is so small, isn’t it).

by Mark Wilson