Portadown manager David Jeffrey issued an apology to the club’s supporters – and declared he was “embarrassed and humiliated” – after their 4-2 Mid Ulster Cup defeat to Glenavon.

The Ports led twice at Shamrock Park thanks to goals from James Teelan and Michael Hewitt, but the Lurgan Blues struck three times in the final 16 minutes to secure progression past their bitter rivals.

It marked Portadown’s fifth consecutive defeat across all competition at the start of this season with Jeffrey’s men losing their opening four in the Premiership ahead of travelling to Cliftonville on Saturday.

"Embarrassed and humiliated are the two emotions,” Jeffrey told the club’s media channel. “We found ourselves for the first time this season a goal up on two occasions...the mistakes we made to concede weren’t even schoolboy.

placeholder image — Portadown manager David Jeffrey. (Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press)

"The first one is a corner where we don’t win the header, the ball drops and it’s a dreadfully poor clearance.

"We then get ourselves back into the game by going ahead and you’re thinking we can consolidate, and then in a matter of minutes we give away a penalty.

"When you look at the third goal, there’s three mistakes, individual errors, and the fourth one capped it all where there’s at least three things that didn’t happen that should.

"I’m desperately sorry to our supporters who came out and were as supportive as they could be...it’s a situation I didn’t envisage.

"We prepared meticulously for this, we had Glenavon watched on Friday night, we were in training (on Monday), we went through all that we had to do well, but the simple fact is we went ahead once, couldn’t hold the lead, went ahead again, couldn’t hold the lead.

"We were eventually punished and that’s the honest analysis of what was a disappointing evening.”

Portadown are one of three Premiership teams yet to collect a point alongside Bangor and Limavady United – the latter duo have played one game fewer.

Only bottom side Bangor (nine) have conceded more goals than the Ports (eight) at this very early stage of the campaign.

Jeffrey has vast Irish League experience having enjoyed successful spells as manager at Linfield and Ballymena United and will call upon that to help transform Portadown’s fortunes.

"The first place you start is with yourself, then your staff and work with the players,” he added. “You look at the mistakes that were made and how they could have been prevented.

"You’re hoping there’s some learning. To let it slip twice when we haven’t had that before is disappointing.

"It’s not about sound bites, it’s about being brutally honest – that’s not good enough for Portadown Football Club, not when you look at history and heritage this club has.

"I’m well aware of the responsibility that is on my shoulders, ultimately it comes down to me, it’s my responsibility.

"I knew this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, but I would have liked to think the work we’ve put in thus far would have bore more fruit and we would have got the dividends for all the hard work that’s going in.

"That hasn’t been the case.”