NIFL Premiership

Portadown 2-0 Cliftonville 

NINE-men Cliftonville dropped to third place in the table after two first-half goals from Portadown saw them run out 2-0 winners at Shamrock Park on Saturday afternoon. 

Ryan Mayse struck early for the hosts who doubled their lead in injury time through Ahu Obhakhan. 

In between times, Cliftonville lost Conor Pepper to a double yellow card in the space of two minutes and on his return from suspension, Jonny Addis was dismissed for a professional foul to compound a miserable afternoon in Mid-Ulster. 

Reds' assistant manager Gerard Lyttle admitted it was a poor day all round and felt his side beat themselves due to the red cards and the nature of the goals conceded. 

"It's obviously a poor day for us," Lyttle lamented. 

"You credit Portadown because they got the win against us, but I think we beat ourselves today- to be honest. 

"The second half, the boys have come out and battled and showed heart and desire not to obviously concede any more. 

"The first half, the game was done. It's hard enough when you lose one player - when you lose two players it's always going to be backs against the wall. 

"It was the nature of how we lost our players and then how we lost our goals was extremely disappointing."

Jonny Addis gets a straight red card for a challenge on Eamon Fyfe
2Gallery

Jonny Addis gets a straight red card for a challenge on Eamon Fyfe

Jonny Addis returned to the startling XI after missing the League Cup quarter-final win over Armagh through suspension. 

Portadown were ahead inside of four minutes when Josh Ukek slipped a pass through to Ryan Mayse and he rounded David Odumosu and sent his angled shot into the empty net. 

The Reds largely dominated possession in the early exchanges and a late offside flag denied Joe Gormley after he had run onto a Ryan Curran pass and netted after the flag was raised. 

Odhran Casey was perhaps fortunate to stay on the pitch for an off-the-ball lash out at Ryan Mayse which only brought a yellow card from League of Ireland official Rob Hennessy.  But Cliftonville were reduced to 10 men seven minutes later.

Conor Pepper chopped down Lee Chapmen and was booked, with Steven McCullough bending the resulting free-kick wide. 

Two minutes after picking up that booking, Pepper tripped former team-mate Ben Wylie and Hennessy produced a second yellow and subsequent red. 

The Ports almost made their numerical advantage count when goalscorer Mayse attempted to pick out Wylie at the back post and Rory Hale was forced to concede a corner. 

The hosts would double their advantage minutes after a dreadful half for Cliftonville was made even worse. 

On his return from a red card in his last league game against Larne, Jonny Addis picked up his third red card for the season for a last-man foul on Eamon Fyfe and with further space to exploit Ahu Obhakhan flicked home from Lee Chapman's low cross to make it 2-0 at the break. 

After a first half full of incident the second half failed to spark to life. 

Ryan Mayse shot into the side-netting midway through the second half and Eamon Fyfe made a hash of an attempt and skied over after substitute Paul McElroy had a shot blocked. 

Cliftonville failed to register a shot on target over the 90 minutes with Rory Hale letting fly with a 78th-minute snapshot which was the closest they came to testing Aaron McCarey. 

In the end, the in-form Ports ran out 2-0 winners and join Cliftonville and Gletoran in a three-way tie for third spot in the table. 

PORTADOWN: McCarey, Altintop, MacKinnon, Chapman (Riley 83'), Mayse, McCullough, Fyfe, Wylie, Ukek (McElroy 67'), Obhakhan, Thompson (Henderson 70'). 

CLIFTONVILLE: Odumosu, Kearney, Casement, Addis, Glynn, Pepper, Doherty, Hale (Corrigan 82'), Steven (Newberry 45+1'), Curran (Piesold 46'), Gormley (Markey 68'). 

REFEREE: Rob Hennessy