Irish Premiership: Glentoran go top as Glenavon beat Coleraine

Glentoran moved to the top of the Irish Premiership table following a 3-0 victory away to Portadown.

Peter Campbell, Robert Garrett and Matthew Fitzpatrick were on target for Glenavon at the Showgrounds.

Paul O’Neill and Albert Watson helped Larne beat 10-man Ballymena United 3-0.

Portadown made a bright start at Shamrock Park but it wasn’t long before Glentoran hit their stride and took the lead when Jay Donnelly’s scuffed effort fell kindly into the path of former Glenavon captain Singleton, who slotted home in the 19th minute.

McMenamin made it two on 24 minutes when his strike from the edge of the area took a deflection and beat the stranded Jethren Barr, and Donnelly was unlucky not to add a third when his lob hit the top of the crossbar after the home defence had stopped and anticipated the offside flag from the assistant referee.

Portadown’s best chance came late in the half when Don de Dieu Tantale tested Aaron McCarey, who had largely been a bystander in the first half, but the Glens were good value for their lead at the break.

Glentoran pressed for a third throughout the second half, with Aidan Wilson and McMenamin going close, and the game became stretched before Jonah Mitchell forced McCarey into a good save from range.

However, Plum was on hand to wrap up the win with 16 minutes to play when Ally Roy danced across the edge of the area and played in the Croatian midfielder, who fired into the bottom corner with a smart finish.

Coleraine suffer first loss of season

Coleraine’s perfect start to the season came to an end as Glenavon picked up their first three points of the season at the Showgrounds.

The hosts, with three wins out of three going into the game, were rocked as early as the 24th minute when Campbell opened the scoring for the visitors with a cool finish following good play from Conor McCloskey and Fitzpatrick.

Gary Hamilton’s side continued to impress and teenager Isaac Baird was close to adding to their tally, but they contrived to hand their hosts the chance to level after 38 minutes when keeper Rory Brown upended Coleraine Matthew Shevlin inside the penalty area.

The striker, Coleraine’s leading goalscorer this term, picked himself up to send Brown the wrong way and send the sides in level at half-time.

All the words of encouragement from Bannsiders’ boss Oran Kearney at half-time were wasted three minutes after the restart when Glenavon took the lead for a second time.

Dean Jarvis lost possession which allowed Garrett to try his luck from distance. His effort took a wicked deflection on its way to cannoning off a post and into the back of the Coleraine net.

And the points were secured just after the hour mark when former Coleraine forward Fitzpatrick struck to make it 3-1. A long ball out of the Glenavon defence was misjudged by Conor McDermott allowing the one-time Antrim GAA star to stride forward and fire a low right foot shot past a helpless Gallagher.

The home side huffed and puffed in the closing stages, Kearney ringing the changes, but to no effect, Glenavon holding on for a deserved win and it is now more than two years since Coleraine have beaten the Lurgan Blues.

Larne put three past Ballymena

O’Neill scored twice as Larne made it seven points from nine with a 3-0 victory over 10-man Ballymena United at Inver Park.

Ballymena frustrated Larne for long periods until former Sky Blue captain Leroy Millar’s left-wing cross found former Cliftonville forward O’Neill at the back post on the 42nd minute.

There was controversy shortly after the restart when Ballymena’s Steven McCullough was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Mark Randall, and that allowed Tiernan Lynch’s men to dominate possession and create numerous chances, with O’Neill in particular causing the Ballymena defence headaches.

David Jeffrey will have been pleased with his teams resolute defending up until the 78th minute when man-of-the-match O’Neill doubled Larne’s advantage when Ben Doherty found the striker in the area and he duly slotted past Sean O’Neill.

There was still time for defender Albert Watson to poke home a Larne corner to add further gloss to the scoreline as the Inver Park side moved up to third in the table.

Cliftonville, last season’s runners-up, can move into second place on Saturday when the Reds host Dean Shiels’ winless Dungannon Swifts at Solitude while Crusaders travel to Newry City.

Linfield, who agonisingly missed on on reaching the group stage of the Europa Conference League on Thursday, will look to bounce back against Carrick Rangers at Taylors Avenue on Sunday.