Carrick, Glenavon and Dungannon off the mark

Portadown took an early lead at Carrick as Nathan Kerr crossed for Chris Lavery to head home.

The home side responded as Lloyd Anderson crashed a shot off the post before Caolan Loughran headed home Jonny Frazer’s free kick to equalise for Nial Currie’s side.

Carrick completed the turnaround by taking the lead on 27 minutes through Michael Smith, who colly fired home the loose ball.

Smith was at the double at the start of the second half to give the hosts a 3-1 lead.

The big striker completed his hat-trick 20 minutes into the second half.

At Ballymena Showgrounds Glenavon came away with all three points with a 2-0 win.

The Lurgan Blues broke the deadlock on 13 minutes at The Showgrounds as Peter Campbell fed the ball in to Matthew Fitzpatrick, who slotted it low into the corner for his second goal in as many games.

In the dying minutes Glenavon wrapped up the points and their first win of the season as Greg Moorhouse raced cleared before making it 2-0.

At Stangmore Park the home side made a bright start against Cliftonville having a goal chalked out for offside before Dougie Wilson did find the net ten minutes before the break.

The visitors drew level on the hour as Gary Breen smashed a free kick into the top corner.

There was drama right at the death though as the Swifts were awarded a penalty after Richard O’Reilly handled in the box.

Up stepped Wilson to slot hom and seal a valuable three points for the hosts.

In what was a tight game at Milltown it took until just before the hour mark for the deadlock to be broken as Fra McCaffrey burst through the visitors defence before slotting home.

The visitors drew themselves level on 69 minutes as Josh Robinson headed home after Gabriel Sava failed to deal with a high ball in the box to secure a point for Larne.