Oran Kearney saluted substitute Jack O’Reilly after his last-gasp goal earned Ballymena United a priceless Premiership point against Portadown at The Showgrounds.

The Sky Blues appeared to be heading for their 18th defeat of the league campaign when Eamon Fyfe shot the visitors into the lead from the penalty spot with only six minutes left on the clock.

Referee Shane McGonigle’s decision shocked most people in the ground when Sean Murray was adjudged to have handled a shot from Ports substitute Ben Quinn.

But with only seconds remaining, former Bohemians man O’Reilly picked the pocket of defender Divin Isamala before blasting the ball low past goalkeeper Alex Moore.

placeholder image — Ballymena United's Jack O'Reilly scored a late equaliser against Portadown on Saturday. (Photo by Desmond Loughery/Pacemaker Press)

“Jack can be frustrating...he is so unpredictable at times,” said Kearney. “He is one of those players who can make an impact coming off the bench.

“Sometimes when he starts, he can drift in and out of the game.

“But this moment of his career, when he comes off the bench, he brings a bit of chaos; he brings a bit of excitement, which we needed, especially the way the game was going.

“It was great for him to get his goal right at the death.

“To be fair, I thought we deserved it. I don’t think we did enough to win the game, but I didn’t think we deserved to lose it.

“I did think we were hard done by with the penalty decision. Sean jumped and the ball kind of hit him in the arm pit. But we responded well.

“On a day of few chances, Jack seized his opportunity, I was delighted to see it hit the back of the net.”

Kearney insisted it is difficult to play football on the gluepot of a pitch at the Showgrounds.

He added: “It ruined the game and it has ruined other games as well.

"For me, it’s holding back some of our lads in terms of their ability.

“The pitch is the biggest stumbling block – it has been the problem since I walked through the door.

"We go from passing and moving on a great synthetic surface on training nights to simply lumping the ball forward on match days.

“We’ve been told it’s going to be sorted in the summer – it can’t come quickly enough.”

Portadown manager Niall Currie was gutted his team blew the chance to pocket three valuable points with practically the last kick of the game.

“Over the 90 minutes, I thought we were the better team and created the best chances,” he said. “In fact, we restricted Ballymena to very few opportunities.

“Poor decisions cost us in the end. We had the chance to kill the game before the Ballymena equaliser when we broke through the middle, we had two men against one defender.

“But we made a mess of it. Our decision-making was poor. It really should have been 2-0 – we should have been home and dry.

“People will look at the mistake big Divin makes for the equaliser, but for me, the big mistake came before that – that was my disappointment.

“Apart from his error, I though Divin was outstanding. He hasn’t played a lot of football lately, but he came in at centre-back and was brilliant.”