SKY BLUES HIT FOUR PAST PORTS
Ballymena United continued their recent rich vein of form with a four-goal defeat of Portadown at The Showgrounds.
Despite how it ended up the Ports got off to the brighter start with Michael Ruddy and Stephen Teggart having early efforts before Barney McKeown smashed a shot against the crossbar with Sammie McLeod also seeing his attempt cleared off the line.
However, the Sky Blues weathered the storm to move in front on 22 minutes through Jude Winchester after keeper Jethren Barr had saved his initial attempt.
It was 2-0 after half-an-hour courtesy of David Parkhouse's instinctive finish after the ball dropped on the edge of the box from Ross Redman's left sided delivery.
Redman went one better himself 11 minutes into the second half direct from a corner fired over from the right which bypassed everyone in the box and ended up in the far corner.
Then, on 79 minutes, Parkhouse completed the scoring with his second of the game after a low, drilled finish past Barr into the corner of the net.
Ballymena United: Johnston, Redman, Winchester, McCullough, Kane, Rodgers, McGrory, Parkhouse, Keeley, Millar, Graham subs Chapman (replaced Winchester 74), Loughran (replaced Keeley 82), Beattie (replaced Kane 82), McMullan (replaced McGrory 87)
Portadown: Barr, Hall, Ruddy, McCallum, McKeown, Conaty, Kerr, S. Teggart, McLeod, Warde, Jordan subs Brown (not used), Anderson (not used), Glenfield (replaced McLeod 77), Murphy (not used), Wood (replaced Ruddy 82), Rutkowski (not used), E. Teggart (not used)
Substitution 
Substitution 
