Portadown F.C.

Junior Years (1886–1924)

In 1887 the Mid Ulster Football Association was established and in Portadown a young group of men set about creating a football club to participate in the Mid-Ulster Cup. Early meetings of the committee were held in a dimly lit room for the Young Men's Institute in Edwards Street in Portadown where club secretary William Mullen would read the minutes by candlelight. Early games were played at Tavanagh and Ripley's Field, Armagh Road and Old Shamrock Park, located approximately where Clounagh Junior High School is sited. Among the early names to turn out for The Port's were Val Wilson who would later become High Sheriff for County Armagh and Harry Bell, whose father owned brickworks on the Armagh Road.

They won the Irish Junior Cup beating Larne at Grosvenor Park on 18 March 1899. That same season The Ports won their first ever cup double by bringing home the Mid-Ulster Cup for the first time. Portadown retained the trophy the following season and the next five seasons before the outbreak of World War 1. The junior game was very strong in the town at the time and The Ports had to compete for talent with teams such as Edenderry Arrows, Greenview from Edgarstown, Portadown Celtic and Parkmount. Portadown is the only one of those clubs that remains today. In 1916 the new Irish Intermediate League was formed and Portadown were selected as one of the inaugural clubs for the new competition. However, they were forced to withdraw due to the large number of players who had gone off to fight in the Great War.

With the return of the local men from the war the clamour for senior football was growing. One man in particular was leading the bid for the club's senior status—William A Mullen the man responsible for coining the phrase "The Hub of the North" which is used in songs by Portadown fans today—back in the late Victorian days when Portadown's extensive rail network led to all parts of Ireland. The many junior clubs in that area put aside their rivalry with The Ports to back the club's bid to join the Irish League. This was in a time of expansionism in Irish Football with the league keen to take the game beyond the boundary of Belfast. The only team who were in the league at the time were bitter rivals Glenavon. In 1923 the Irish League was expanded from six to ten clubs with the introduction of Newry Town, Ards and Barn . Then finally, after several years of preparation, Mr Mullen together with Tom Dawson and his committee met the league chiefs in June 1924 and were able to present a strong case for joining the league. Their good work in winning friends and influencing people paid dividends and at long last Portadown became a full member club of the Irish League together with the readmittance of Belfast Celtic. The nucleus of the first teams to represent the club came from the local junior clubs who had supported the bid—names such as Nisbet, Dinnan, Carraher, Boyd, Cochrane and Hunter.

Early Irish League Years (1924–1932)

In August 1924, Portadown played their first senior game; the opponents that day were Glentoran. The first game played at Shamrock Park was against the champions Queens Island in a game that finished 0–0.

In that first season, Portadown finished 4th, two points behind Belfast Celtic with Queens Island taking 2nd place behind champions Glentoran. Along the way, the Ports had some memorable games including a 4–3 victory over Linfield at Shamrock Park and a 1–0 win against Belfast Celtic in the City Cup.

The season 1925–1926 saw a continuation of their consolidation in the league with away victories at both Belfast Celtic and Linfield.

After only nine seasons in senior football Portadown lifted their first senior trophy, defeating Glentoran 1-0 at Solitude in the Gold Cup Final. Thousands of Factory workers took a half-day off work and travelled to Belfast by train. Around 5,000 Ports fans were packed into Solitude to witness an amazing triumph. With only three minutes left and the scores tied at 0-0, William Johnston scored the winning goal amid scenes of wild celebration for the Ports supporters.

As the team returned to town that night they were met by thousands of people at the railway station and toured the town in an open top coach before stopping at St. Mark's Church for speeches. Chairman William Mullen led the speeches before igniting a terrific bonfire.

Tommy Sloan Trophy Winning Era (1932–1938)

Tommy Sloan was appointed manager in 1932 and his and Portadown's first major trophy success came in the 1933–34 season when they won the Gold Cup under manager Tommy Sloan and winning the same trophy again in the 1937–38 season before his resignation due to the coming war in 1938 and being replaced by Hugh Bullough; Sloan came back to the club for a brief spell during World War II.

Postwar Era (1945–1954)

Postwar, Portadown was in the shadow of Mid Ulster rivals Glenavon who won several league titles in this period of time.

Gibby McKenzie Era (1958–1977)

In 1958, the club appointed Scottish manager Gibby McKenzie. The press described him as "the fast-talking Scot with the fanatical zeal for the game who eats sleeps and breathes football" after Glenavon legend Harry Walker's short spell in charge. McKenzie very nearly clinched that first elusive league title in the 1960–61 season with Albert Mitchell missing a penalty that would have secured the league championship against Glentoran and in the 1961–62 season where they finished second to Linfield in these seasons and finished third in the Irish League the following season. McKenzie left the Ports for good in 1977 after his second spell in charge of the club.

Bertie Neil Era (1977–1979)

In 1977, the club appointed former Bangor Bertie Neil, famed for the development of Northern Ireland legend and now Sky Sports commentator Gerry Armstrong. Neil's spell, although short, was considered successful with another Gold Cup and an Irish Cup Final appearance in a 3–2 defeat to Cliftonville. In 1979, the club announced that Neil had left the club "by mutual consent".

Terry Kingon Era (1983–1986)

After Jon Flanagan's short spell in charge, the club appointed former player and Glentoran legend Terry Kingon. It was somewhat of a surprise appointment for, although he had been a great player and firm favourite of the fans, he lacked managerial experience. He brought the old determination and commitment to the post, but failed to match his great playing ability with similar success as manager. In fairness, it wasn’t an easy period, as the ‘Troubles’ were at their height and football experienced great difficulties with falling attendances and gate receipts. His team did manage to reach the Ulster Cup final in 1985, beating Linfield 3–1 in the semi-final at The Oval. But the serious injury in that game to ace Scottish striker, Billy Paton—who had netted 28 goals the previous season for the Ports—was a devastating blow. Portadown held Coleraine F.C.|Coleraine]] to a scoreless draw during the 90 minutes but collapsed in extra-time, finally losing 5–0. Paton, who had started the game with pain-killing injections, broke down early on. Deprived of his scoring qualities for the rest of the season, Portadown struggled financially and this resulted in the sale of the training ground to meet creditors’ demands. Kingon did his best with limited resources and one of the fascinating features of his season in charge at Shamrock Park was the large number of drawn games involving Portadown. In fact, before he resigned in December 1986, Portadown had drawn nine of the first 14 Irish League games, losing the other five. Always approachable and available at all times to football reporters for interviews and team news, Terry Kingon was always frank and honest in his post-match analysis. He left Portadown in a dignified manner—"by mutual consent" as the statement from the Board put it—and, as was typical of the man, in subsequent interviews he refused to blame anyone, instead accepting that he had found managerial responsibilities a lot more difficult and a lot less enjoyable than playing. The club in the 1989–90 season finally broke the famed "Gypsy Curse" at Shamrock Park when, after coming so close so many times in the past, the club finally won the Irish League, and in the final game there was a pitch invasion by Ports fans , who were confused and were in utter disbelief at what had just happened that they had finally done it,after coming so painfully close so many times. The following season was without a doubt the best one in the club's history when in the 1990–91 season the club dominated the Irish League nearly beating every team in the division. They managed to retain the title that season and they beat bitter rivals Glenavon in the Irish cup final by two goals to one to secure the club's first ever league and cup double. The season after was a disappointing one as players from the first two titles who were in the prime of their careers at the time, had started to age and attendances were starting to fall. In the 1993–1994 season the club had partially recovered from this slump and were involved in a three-way battle for the title between themselves and Linfield and Glenavon. With a rejuvenated squad arguably not as good as the last one, the Ports took on Glenavon and the winners would secure the league title however a draw at Mourneview Park would hand the title to Linfield. Glenavon raced into a two-goal lead against Portadown at Mourneview Park and with Linfield drawing with Glentoran, the Lurgan Blues would have won their first league title in 34 years. However, Portadown scored two quick fire goals to level it at 2–2 and with Linfield beating the Glens The Belfast side were now champions. Everything at Mourneview had now turned in Portadown's favour, who were creating chance after chance with the Ports missing the chance to win the title themselves when Robert Casey missed an easy chance with Linfield being eventually crowned champions. For the 1995–96 season a new crest was introduced and the Ports managed to win their third league title that season with Gary Haylock and Sandy Fraser the instigators in the title winning team.

Transition Period (1996–2000)

After their title win the club lost many of their aging star players to retirement and to other clubs and McFall is fondly remembered signing Notts County striker Vinny Arkins and "Big Vin" famously talks about how McFall refused to let him walk away from talks until he signed the contract offered to him. A generation of players such as Philip Major and Kyle Neill coming through and a few signings helped McFall build another team to win yet another league title in 2002 and losing 2–1 to Linfield in the Irish Cup Final to prevent another league and cup double. Club success from then on was quite poor with cost cutting measures coming in and many aging players retiring or going to bigger clubs. The club's last major trophy came in 2005 when the club took on Larne in the Irish Cup Final with the Inver Park side scoring early on before the Ports scored five goals to secure the Irish Cup.

Demotion (2008)

On 30 April 2008, Portadown, who had been a senior football club in Northern Ireland since 1924, were demoted to the Championship as a result of the club's final application form for the new IFA Premiership (due to replace the Irish Premier League for 2008–09) having been received 29 minutes late and thus not considered. The club unsuccessfully appealed its exclusion. Due to the drop from Northern Ireland's top domestic football league, the IFA Premiership, Portadown took on intermediate status, due to the IFA Championship, which is Northern Ireland's second tier of football, being an intermediate league. McFall described the time as "the toughest point of his managerial career" and managed to keep several star players and in their first season in the Championship, the club won promotion straight back into senior football, beating their closest rivals Donegal Celtic 2–0 in the last (and decisive) match of the season. Also, after beating Newry City 1–0 at Mournview Park on 28 February 2009, Portadown became the first intermediate club to win the Irish League Cup. Scotsman Gary McCutcheon scored the winning goal.

Portadown qualified to play UEFA Europa League football in the 2010–11 season on account of being runners-up in the 2009–10 Irish Cup to Linfield. They defeated the Latvian side Skonto Riga 2–1 on aggregate to advance to the second qualifying round. It was their first win in European cup competition since 1974. The second qualifying round 1st leg match was played at Shamrock Park on 15 July 2010 with Richard Lecky scoring the opening goal against the Azerbaijani side FK Qarabağ, but two second half goals from the Azerbaijanis saw them take a 2–1 lead back home for the second leg on 22 July 2010. The 2nd leg in Azerbaijan ended 1–1 which was not enough for the Ports who were knocked out 3–2 on aggregate.

The 2011–12 season saw the Ports recover and build a team that hit form that was largely spearheaded by Welsh striker Matthew Tipton and the Ports put away every team in the league in around January. A broken collarbone for Matthew Tipton caused the Ports title challenge to fade away before finishing the season in 2nd place.

The 2012–13 season saw Matthew Tipton sign for champions Linfield and Portadown sent shock waves through the Irish League when it was announced that they had beaten strong competition from Linfield for Shamrock Rovers striker Gary Twigg who managed to score on his debut but the Shamrock Park club could only muster 7th place.

The 2013–14 season was a largely frustrating one of what might have been, with Gary Twigg playing a valuable part and scoring regularly along with inform young striker Darren Murray and Kevin Braniff's moments of sheer class at times and the skill of Peter McMahon. The club showed form at times capable of winning the league by constantly hammering Glenavon and famously beating Ballinamallard United 11–0. But poor results against teams lower in the table meant they finished only 4th and the falling out between striker Kevin Braniff and Ronnie McFall resulted in the striker leaving the club and heading to Australia.

In the 2014–15 season the Ports signed Linfield playmaker Robert Garrett ,Blues captain Michael Gault and reliable Blues striker Mark McAilaster. This had meant a lot was expected of the club to challenge for the title and they started the season with an incredible 3-0 win over Warren Feeneys Linfield and several wins over Glenavon and eventual champions Crusaders They also showed the capabilty of being champions when in a game against basement side Institute with the game leveled at 1–1 in the dieing minutes Michael Gault scored a late long distance effort to secure the three points amid to celebration from the patient crowd. A 2–1 defeat away to Warrenpoint and losing 3–2 to the Linfield with Ross Redman missing a penalty in the final minutes ,saw the Ports fall away in the league but in the Irish Cup Quarter Final they took on Linfield once again at Shamrock Park with Chris Casement putting the home side 1–0 up with a penalty very early on and a superb performance from Scot Gary Twigg pitching in with two goals had meant that Portadown were 3–0 up at half time and went on to win the game 3–2 and seal and Irish Cup Semi Final with Glenn Fergusons Ballymena United at The Oval and yet again within 25 minutes they had blown Ballymena away and were 3–0 up again and sealed their place in the final by winning 3–1. With the Kop Stand at Windsor Park collapsing the final was forced to be moved to The Oval where they would take on Glentoran.In the league Portadown played Glenavon at Mourneview Park with the winner being guaranteed 3rd place and a lucrative Europa League Qualifying Round spot. Glenavon raced into a two-goal lead before James Singleton was sent off for clashing with Ken Oman and Portadown had pulled It back to 2–2 through Peter McMahon and Gary Twigg before Eoin Bradley was hauled down by Ross Redman and a last-minute penalty was dispatched by Andy McGory. Portadown were strong favourites going into the final but the final failed to live up to expectations with virtually nothing happening In the first half until In the second period Glens defender William Garrett played a poor back pass that Michael Gault managed to run onto before being taken down by Garrett and Elliot Morris then picked up the back pass and with three officials Ross Dunlop,Raymond Crangle and Richard Storey in clear view of the incident nothing was given with Crangle latter admitting that he had felt that it was a clear foul and red card and had said that a faulty headset was to blame for the foul not being given with linesman Storey saying "Nothing,Nothing" on his headset and referee Ross Dunlop saying he felt ithat was a natural coming together whilst straight after the incident Glentoran went up the other way and David Scullion scored to give The Glens the lead and straight after there was a blatant handball by Calum Birney missed again by the 3 officials and Glentoran went on to win the cup final 1–0 with Scullion s goal the deciding factor in the tie.In the post match BBC interview Ronnie McFall was clearly furious with the decision made by the officials, "It was a blatant trip on Gault on the edge of the box and should have been a free kick and a red card for yer boy and a blatant handball not picked by the referee, they don't want to know because they think they never get anything wrong and in a game of this importance officials have to be up to the mark and unfortunately they weren't up to it today" winning the game would have been worth a minimum €200,000 to the club from European Qualification and the incident is remembered as the worst refereeing error in Irish League history.

2015–16 Season

The club suffered greatly financially from this incident meaning that they could sign no one in summer 2015 however they started the season by beating the champions Crusaders 2–1 and beat Warrenpoint Town by the same scoreline three days later. However the club started to rapidly decline losing to several teams 3–0 and the fans had started to become unhappy with results and started to ask for the board to consider McFall's position as manager which was ignored completely annoying fans who began to constantly boo the manager and staff and following a 3–1 defeat to Crusaders at Shamrock Park, when striker Darren Murray scored, there was a brief cheer from the home support and when striker Murray, who had treated the club poorly ran over to the bench and hugged the manager which meant the home support turned from cheering to booing and during the game a group of fans were protesting with a banner asking for the removal of the manager which was removed by the chairman who engaged in arguments with supporters asking them to leave and received tirades of abuse from supporters at the game. With afterward assistant manager Kieran Harding accusing Portadown fans protesting as "Not real supporters" and famously calling them "Imposters". The abuse both the chairman and the manager got week after week brought the mood at the club down massively with automatic relegation on the cards. In January the club signed former Linfield midfielder Philip Lowry in the hope that fortunes would improve with Lowry creating a reasonable impact scoring an amazing outside of box shot to beat Coleraine in the Irish Cup and he scored again in a 2–1 win over Linfield. Things were slowly improving until Portadown were hammered 4–1 by bitter rivals Glenavon at Mourneview Park with fans making their feelings known to the manager before the start of the game, when the Glenavon PR announcer congratulated and thanked Ronnie McFall at his last game as Portadown manager vs Glenavon, with the home support applauding and showing their appreciation towards McFall's contributions to the game, there was a sour reaction from the away end with many booing and shouting abuse.The fans further showed their discontent at the manager at full time.The club took on NIFL Championship 1 side Lurgan Celtic in the Irish Cup Quarter Final with Celtic scoring twice to go into a 2–0 lead at half time with the home support showing their discontent at half time. Portadown piled on the pressure in the second half and leveled the score to 2–2 before conceding a last second penalty with Lurgan Celtic defender Raymond Fitzpatrick disbatching it and winning the game 3–2 to get Celtic into their first ever Irish Cup Semi Final with fans chanting "OUT! OUT! OUT! OUT! OUT! OUT!" Directing chants and abuse at the manager and the players. That evening it was announced that Ronnie McFall had resigned from his post as manager after one of the worst seasons in the club's history.

The Ronnie McFall era (1986–2016)

From 11 December 1986 to 5 March 2016 the club's manager was Ronnie McFall. He signed another in five-year contract in 2009 and signed a two-year deal in August 2014. McFall brought great success to the club winning their elusive first ever league title in 1989 and league title wins in 1991,1996 and in 2002 he also won the club 3 Irish Cups. He was born and raised in Portadown and played left-back for the club during the 1960s and 1970s. He has also played for Dundee United of Scotland, and afterwards Ards and Glentoran where he began his managerial career. Ronnie McFall was the longest serving manager in European football surpassing Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013 and being surpassed by Arsene Wenger in 2016. McFall is one of the most successful managers in Irish league football. Following a run of poor results, McFall announced he would step down from his position as manager following a shocking 3–2 defeat to Lurgan Celtic in the Irish Cup Quarter Final.

Pat McGibbon Era (2016)

The following day it was announced that former defender Pat McGibbon who was the club's physiotherapist would take over as Interim manager until the end of the season bringing club legend Vinny Arkins on board as a coach. Despite winning 1 game in 10 in Interim charge against the bottom six sides, McGibbon was announced as manager on a two-year contract and managed to help the club successfully avoid relegation. The club was fined £10,000 which was halved on appeal to £5,000 and received a one-year ban on signing professional contracts until June 2017 for not declaring extra payments made to striker Gary Twigg for doing coaching work over the summer. The club also received a 12-point deduction for the 2016–17 for an administrative error made in relation to the contract of exiled midfielder Peter McMahon who later left the club in July 2016. After a series of bad results in October 2016, Pat McGibbon announced his resignation from the club. Vinny Arkins was appointed Interim manager. Port's legend Arkins took charge for the game against Coleraine at Shamrock Park where they lost 1–0.The game was marred by protests from supporters towards the board with the chairman being involved with a physical altercation with a fan and a large group of supporters directing abuse to all Portadown officials and allegedly a director's car was damaged as they attempted to leave the ground before the end of the game. Arkins won his first official game in charge in a 2–1 win against Ballinamallard United with the goals coming from Stephen Hughes and a penalty from Niall Henderson.It was followed up with a 3–1 win over Ards with the goals coming from Robert Garrett, Stephen Hughes and Brendan Shannon scoring his first goal for the club from the penalty spot. However, it was later found that the club had fielded midfielder Robert Garrett who was supposed to be serving a one game ban and despite Ards officials informing Portadown that they believed that Garrett was suspended which was ignored in the end with Ards being awarded a 3–0 win and the home side being fined £500. It was followed up by a decent goalless draw with rivals Glentoran and a one nil defeat to Champions Crusaders as well as a one one draw with Carrick Rangers and a 0–5 defeat to Linfield at a very foggy Shamrock Park.

Niall Currie Era (2016–)

On 5 December 2016, Portadown-born Niall Currie was appointed as manager after agreeing his release from Ards and brought his loyal Portadown-based assistant Jay Willis also from Ards. Upon his first game at Solitude against Cliftonville they were defeated 1–0 with a goal from Levi Ives the decider. it was announced pre match that legendary goalkeeper David Miskelly would be retiring immediately due to a shoulder injury after 12 years at the club. Currie won his second game in charge in a 2–0 win over Dungannon Swifts and a 2–2 draw with mid-Ulster rivals Glenavon. The club suffered a dry spell after losing 5-0 against bitter rivals Glentoran at Shamrock Park with Nacho Novo among the scorers and knocked out Larne out of the Irish Cup in the 5th Round.The results that followed were defeats to Coleraine and a narrow defeat to rivals Glenavon.The Reds took on Curries former club Ards at Shamrock Park where they lost 0-3.The club earned a credible 1-1 draw with title chasing Linfield at Windsor Park with Adam Foley scoring a fantastic lob over Linfield goalkeeper Roy Carroll in the 82nd minute and substitute Josh Carson rescuing a point for the home side in added time.The result at Windsor Park was followed up with another credible 1-1 draw with champions Crusaders.

Problems

In 1999 a social club outside the stadium was the scene of a violent incident in which members from the Loyalist Volunteer Force, some of whom were out on Christmas parole, were attacked by members of the rival Ulster Volunteer Force.

In 2007, there was an incident at The Oval when rival Portadown and Glentoran fans clashed in the streets outside the ground and missiles were thrown and cars damaged. The club management condemned the incident. Portadown is signed up to the UEFA 10-point plan on racism, along with the eleven other NIFL Premiership clubs.

By competition

Last updated on 10 December 2016

Senior honours

† Won by Portadown Reserves

Intermediate honours

† Won by Portadown Reserves

Junior honours

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.