MANAGER'S VIEW: 'Crikey Gallagher's as honest as a day is long' - Larne red frustration with 18-game run over for leaders
Premiership leaders Larne’s 18-game unbeaten league run finished in a shock loss at Shamrock Park that ended 2-1 down and one man down.
Josh Ukek finished with two assists for the hosts – setting up Jack Scott to break the deadlock then Eamon Fyfe for the game’s winning goal.
Portadown scored either side of a well-worked Larne equaliser from Andy Ryan but away boss Gary Haveron finished frustrated at the red card for Chris Gallagher off a second bookable offence.
Here’s the post-match verdict of Larne boss Gary Haveron:
OVERALL REACTION...
"We should have been out of sight in the opening 15-20 minutes with the chances we created.
"We've gone through one-on-one with a goalkeeper on three occasions and we haven't managed to get a shot or goal or a finish in there.
"So we're really disappointed that we never took advantage of how dominant we were in the opening spell of the game.
"And for the dominance of what we had, we didn't dominate the scoreboard, we never got the chances, we never scored the goal and we weren't ruthless enough.
"You get a man sent off five minutes into the second half and then it becomes really difficult.
"We had to change things and adapt to it, it's very difficult playing down here whenever they were built set in to defend it and then have that counter-attack.
"They always had a threat in the game...they have something to defend at that point.
"They put numbers behind the ball and get around it, they clear everything.
"It's more disappointing for us...we haven't broken them down, we haven't got any clearcut chances.
"The big thing is in these games, when you're on top, take advantage.
"If we'd have got the goals when we were on top, it would have been a different afternoon.”
CHRIS GALLAGHER RED CARD...
"Yes, he goes in hard but it's a physical game and he's won the ball clean as a whistle.
"What do you want people to do? Not make tackles, not throw themselves in, not put their bodies on the line?
"A difficult enough task at 2-1 down becomes even more difficult with 10.
"Crikey Gallagher is as honest as a day is long...he says 'I won the ball'.
"I'm going to have a pop at him if he doesn't make tackles....that's what his job is, he's a defensive midfielder and he's in our team to make tackles.”
DEFENSIVE FRUSTRATION...
"With (Josh) Ukek up front, they're always a threat...a long diagonal ball and a flick-on and he gets in the back of us and we make a mess of the clearance and it drops and they get a tap-in (1-0).
"And then when we do take the chance and get back at one each, we do the same thing and we leave the back door open.
"I'm not making excuses...you come down here without Matt Ridley and Ryan Nolan and you're missing big senior centre-halves.
"You're always going to miss the quality of what they've given us to this point but people had the opportunity to step up and we were disappointed with the two goals that we conceded.
"Really disappointed.
"They do say you're vulnerable just after you score or concede.
"We'd scored one and we're not smart enough two minutes before half-time to manage the game to get half-time and go again.
"Because up until that point, at 1-1, my team talk would have been very positive because of the nature of how the game was playing out.
"We were the more dominant team in the game.
"But you're coming in at 2-1 with really naive defending and really poor from our perspective that we've just not defended well enough."