Cliftonville edge Crusaders as Portadown beat Ballymena

Cliftonville made it three successive Irish Premiership wins as they edged rivals Crusaders 1-0 in an entertaining game at Solitude.

Joe Gormley scored what proved to be the winner on 39 minutes, slotting home from a narrow angle for his seventh goal of the season.

The victory moves Jim Magilton's side up to second in the table, with leaders Linfield not in action until Sunday.

Ballymena United slipped to a third loss in a row as they were beaten 3-0 by Portadown at the Showgrounds.

Gormley opened the scoring in the 39th minute, after neat build-up play involving Michael Newberry and Aaron Pettifer ended with Shea Kearney poking the ball through to Gormley, who made no mistake slotting past Jonny Tuffey.

Magilton's side had threatened earlier in the contest when Michael Glynn found Taylor Steven in acres of space, but Tuffey made a sprawling save to stop the midfielder's volley from close range.

The Crues had squandered a golden opportunity to take the lead themselves in the 21st minute, Jordan Forsythe heading straight at David Odumosu from point-blank range after meeting Robbie Weir's inviting cross.

The hosts continued to press, with Ryan Curran chipping the ball over the visitors' defence to find Gormley, whose tight-angled shot was denied by the busy Tuffey.

Declan Caddell's men pushed for an equaliser in the second half, with Forsythe heading wide from close range and Philip Lowry shooting off-target from distance.

The lively Jordan Stewart also threatened after dispossessing Luke Conlan just outside the penalty area, but the follow-up shot failed to trouble Odumosu.

Despite the away side's late pressure, the Reds held firm to secure a crucial victory.

It was a slow start to the game with the first meaningful chance coming in the 26th minute when Eamon Fyfe connected with Lee Chapman's delivery into the box, but the forward was unable to keep his resulting header on target.

Just three minutes later the visitors had another good chance with Fyfe in action again when he travelled down the right flank and played the ball across for Paul McElroy, who had space but fired off-target.

Ballymena’s Josh Carson and Andrew Scott then tried their luck from range in quick succession with neither of the efforts testing Aaron McCarey.

Just after the restart Chapman travelled through midfield and to the edge of the box before firing narrowly wide of the left-hand post.

Carson then made two crucial blocks to stop Ryan Mayse’s corner before deflecting the forward’s strike away from goal moments later.

Carson was in action again when his free-kick hit the crossbar with the away side breaking the deadlock through the resulting counter-attack when Josh Ukek controlled the clearance on the left flank, travelled forward and slotted into the bottom corner.

Mayse added a quick second just three minutes later in similar fashion when Shay McCartan latched onto Lewis MacKinnon’s long pass and played the ball over the Ballymena defence for the substitute, whose powerful effort found the back of the net.

The goals weren’t done there with Mayse turning provider in the 86th minute when he charged down through midfield and crossed into the box for Fyfe, who fired past Sean O'Neill to secure Portadown’s first victory at the Ballymena Showgrounds since 2016.