Crusaders crashed to a third straight defeat in the Sports Direct Premiership as clinical Portadown claimed the spoils at Seaview yesterday.
Ryan Mayse opened for the visitors on 29 minutes, then Ahu Obhakhan and Lewis MacKinnon made sure of a deserved victory over a disappointing Crues team who started well but faded alarmingly.
After losing their first two games on their return to the top flight, Portadown have now gone six games unbeaten and the Mid Ulster side must be applauded for their admirable energy and work rate throughout.
The Ports were tenacious without the ball and dangerous in attack, and manager Niall Currie professed himself to be pleased with various aspects of his team’s performance.
“What really pleased me was our ball retention and control, and our back line and goalkeeper were very, very good and we had a good balance on the day”, said the Portadown boss.
“I thought we were a wee bit passive in the first half, we were reactive, not proactive, but I told the players at half time, blow your gasket out there and I thought we were much better in the second half.
“We overloaded intentionally in the middle of the park, and I’m glad we did.
“The players are in a good place and there’s a bit of confidence about the squad, I’m all for that but I would like to stay nice and humble.
“We’re expected to fight out a relegation battle, and rightly so when you look at the teams in this league, but we’re in a decent place and we’ve acquitted ourselves well.”
The Crues started the season with three draws and a win but have subsequently lost to Glenavon, Dungannon Swifts and now Portadown without a goal scored.
Jordan Forsythe, Harry Franklin, Kieran Offord and James Teelan all had good chances to score but didn’t force Portadown goalkeeper to hit the target and were punished at the other end.
A dejected Declan Caddell lamented the work rate of his own players yesterday but said he would look at himself first and foremost.
“We looked leggy, we looked tired, we looked five yards off it”, said the Crusaders manager.
“First 25 minutes I thought we were good, we conceded and we were looking a response to that, but we didn’t get it.
“Gradually, we became more tired, and probably as coaching staff we’ve got to look at that and work out what our workload was last week, whether we worked the players too hard, but it’s disappointing.
“I thought Portadown were excellent. They were hungry, they looked sharp and they caused us problems. 3-0 and it could have been more, that’s the sad reality.
“We’ve scored five goals in the league and that’s not good enough.
“It’s something we’ve been lacking in the last couple of games, they are massive chances and if you don’t take them you get punished.”
The North Belfast side has now dropped to eighth position in the league, with Portadown leapfrogging them to take seventh slot.
Meanwhile, Cliftonville boss Jim Magilton couldn’t hide his anger at his team’s display in the defeat to Ballymena at the Showgrounds.
“The scoreline flattered us, we didn’t do enough to win the game and Ballymena deserved to win,” he said.
“We didn’t make the goalkeeper make enough saves, the quality in the final third was really poor and it was a really lethargic display.
“We set standards, and the players fell well below those – I do not want a repeat.”
LInfield left it until the seventh minute of injury time to make the breakthrough against basement side Carrick Rangers at Windsor Park, Kirk Millar doing the damage with a free kick.
Glenavon drew 1-1 draw with Dungannon Swifts at Mourneview Park, while Coleraine were 2-0 home winners over Loughgall, who go to Larne on Tuesday night.
The champions beat Glentoran 2-0 at Inver Park under the Friday night lights and are nine points behind Linfield but with three matches in hand due to their European commitments.