Premiership

PREMIERSHIP: 11th SEPTEMBER RECAP

11 Sep 2021
football
© Declan Roughan/INPHO Oisin Conaty and Matthew Clarke
Another entertaining Saturday of Danske Bank Premiership action produced victories for Linfield, Larne and Coleraine while the North Belfast derby at Seaview ended all square.
 
Cliftonville still lead the way at the top of the table but they required an injury time Daniel Kearns leveller to earn a point from their short visit to Crusaders, who thought they have done enough to secure victory thanks to Jordan Forsythe's opener just after the hour.
 
And it took a late goal to give Linfield the edge over Portadown at Shamrock Park. The Ports took an early lead through Ruairi Croskery but Christy Manzinga levelled midway through the first half. Lee Bonis edged the home side back in front right on the interval, only for Matt Green to equalise on 68 minutes.
 
However, David Healy's side ultimately returned to Belfast with all three points courtesy of Manzinga's winner with five minutes remaining.
 
There were no such issues for Coleraine who swept to a convincing five-goal victory over Dungannon Swifts at Stangmore Park.
 
Stephen Lowry opened the scoring midway through the first half, Eoin Bradley made it 2-0 on the stroke of half-time, Matthew Shevlin added a third early in the second half before two goals in five minutes after the hour from Jamie Glackin and Ronan Wilson further compounded home misery.
 
Larne also kept a clean sheet in their defeat of Warrenpoint Town at Inver Park. Despite dominating throughout it took until the 33rd minute for Andrew Mitchell to open the scoring, and then until the hour for Lee Lynch to add a second with John Herron knocking home a third late in proceedings.
 
Meanwhile, the Glenavon-Carrick Rangers game at Mourneview Park was abandoned in the 71st minute due to a serious leg injury suffered by Carrick centre-half Lee McNulty.