WHYTE'S PENALTY DELIGHT

At the final whistle, the Crues had strengthened a position at the head of the league standings - but only thanks to the slender margin of a controversial penalty kick on 66 minutes.

Gavin Whyte proved composed to convert the game’s decisive moment at Shamrock Park.

However, the decision by referee Arnold Hunter to award the spot-kick sparked post-match debate as the Ports argued against a foul by Ken Oman on Jordan Owens.

“It was very harsh for me,” said interim Portadown manager Vinny Arkins, who will be at the centre of talks between club directors next week at a meeting to discuss the position of permanent boss. “To give a penalty like that was very soft in a game between two battling sides with big strong lads.

“The fact is it was big Jordan and our lads were battling with him and I didn’t see an awful lot in it, although the referee felt otherwise.

“On the flip side, we felt there was a blatant handball in the first half.

“But Crusaders are exceptionally good and our quality wasn’t great in the final third.

“We’ll know after this week what way the club is moving forward.”

Crusaders boss Stephen Baxter opted to focus on the final result and vital points reward.

“It’s always a battle as Portadown have experienced warriors but we’ve carved out really good chances and restricted them to zero shots,” he said. “It was a battle but we’ve come away with the victory we’ve fully deserved.

“But you only need one decent ball into your box and, that’s football, there’s always a chance you put a team under pressure and lose.

“You can dominate for 90 minutes and lose but we saw the game out well and dealt with anything they managed to throw at us.

“You just accept whatever way it’s working.

“I thought our first-half performance was not as good as I would have liked.

“In the second half we just came at them with rampant pressure, with Gavin Whyte and Paul Heatley a threat all day and Michael Carvill was tireless.”

Heatley proved a livewire challenge for Portadown’s resolute backline and goalkeeper Chris McGaughey had to be alert to deny Owens twice in quick succession from a few yards.

“This is the winter period when you have to start digging out the results over the next eight to 10 weeks,” said Baxter. “We gave them Thursday night off as the boys have been at it hard from the first week of July.

“Coming to Portadown is a tough place so I’m pleased to be going up the road with three points in the bag.”

PORTADOWN: McGaughey, Carson, Oman (Breen, 74), Byrne, O’Hara, Parker, Garrett, Henderson (Mackle, 74), Shannon (Kirwan, 83), Hughes, Haire.

Subs (not used): Wilson, Larkin.

CRUSADERS: O’Neill, Burns, Beverland, Coates, Carvill, Forsythe, McLean, Owens, Clarke (Gault, 77), Heatley (Cushley, 88), Whyte.

Subs (not used): Mitchell, Soares, Dougherty.

Referee: Hunter.