Portadown travel to Inver Park this evening (7 November) to take on Larne in the Sports Direct Premiership, 7:45pm kick off.
The last time the two sides met was back in August with Larne running out comfortable 4-0 winners thanks to goals from Matthew Lusty, a Mark Randall double and a Tiarnan O’Connor strike.
Larne currently sit third in the Premiership table and come into the game off the back of a 2-1 win over Bangor on Tuesday evening in the BetMcLean Cup, in league matters they were 2-0 victors over Ballymena United last time out.
Gary Haveron’s men are unbeaten at Inver Park this season (5 wins, 1 draw) and have kept five clean sheets along the way, in fact you’ve to go back to February for their last home league defeat, a 1-0 loss to Dungannon Swifts.
Portadown’s away form is a cause of concern for Niall Currie, only two wins from six away games this season and just two wins in their last 13 away league games in total with no clean sheet on the road since January.
Portadown’s last victory away to Larne came in our opening Championship game of the 2017/18 season when we won 3-0 at Taylors Avenue thanks to goals from Niall Henderson, Matty Hazley and Kyle McVey, Larne were ground sharing with Carrick Rangers at the time due to ongoing works at Inver Park. Portadown’s last win at Inver Park came back in January 2017 in the Irish Cup when a debut goal from Adam Foley as well as a Stephen Hughes goal secured Portadown’s place in the next round.
Portadown will be without the suspended Aaron McCarey and Steven McCullough for this evenings game while Rayhann Tulloch, Ahu Obhakhan, Josh Ukek and Shay McCartan all remain sidelined with injury.
On the game, Ports manager Niall Currie commented
We have pretty much the same squad as we had available for the Glentoran game, unfortunately though Steven McCullough is added to our absentees due to suspension, but Baris Altintop returns.
We put in a great performance against Glentoran and felt hard done by getting nothing from the game, the boys have been fantastic in the middle of a run of really difficult games with Linfield, Glentoran, Coleraine and now Larne tonight, but I’ve been proud of how competitive we have been in all those games and we want the same tonight. If we can reach those same levels I’ll be very happy as it will always give us a chance in any game.
Officials | Louise Thompson, Ryan Kelsey, Shane Corrigan, Tim Marshall
Tickets for the game are available via larnefc.com/tickets
Last Five | Head to Head
22 August 2025 | Larne 4 (Lusty, Randall 2, O’Connor) Portadown 0
15 February 2025 | Portadown 2 (Ukek, Obhakhan) Larne 0
1 February 2025 | Larne 1 (Ryan) Portadown 1 (McCullough)
27 October 2024 | Portadown 2 (Fyfe, McCartan) Larne 1 (McCarey OG)
24 January 2023 | Larne 2 (Bolger, Thomson) Portadown 0
Last Five | Inver Park:
22 August 2025 | Larne 4 (Lusty, Randall 2, O’Connor) Portadown 0
1 February 2025 | Larne 1 (Ryan) Portadown 1 (McCullough)
24 January 2023 | Larne 2 (Bolger, Thomson) Portadown 0
29 January 2022 | Larne 4 (Bonis x2, Balmer, Nasseri) Portadown 0
9 February 2021 | Larne 2 (Mottley-Henry, Hale) Portadown 2 (Guy, Bonis)
