Portadown Football Club is a semi-professional Northern Irish football club who play in the NIFL Premiership.
The club was formed in 1887 as a junior team seeking to participate in the Mid-Ulster Cup, eventually joining the Irish League with the support of other local clubs in 1924. Portadown are part of the Mid-Ulster F.A.
They are based in Portadown, County Armagh and play their home matches at Shamrock Park. The club's colours are red and white. Their home are kit consists of red shirts, red shorts and red socks with white trim on all.
The club badge shows an apple due to Armagh being the 'Orchard County', a shamrock for their home venue and location in Ireland, and a rose for the McGredy family rose growers. The red and white stripes represent Portadown railway station as the 'Hub of the North'.
The club's main rivals are Glenavon, with their matches being known as the "Mid Ulster Derby". The club also has a longstanding rivalry with Glentoran.
History Junior years (1886–1924) The Mid Ulster Football Association was established in 1887 and a series of meetings were held in the Young Men's Institute in Edward Street in Portadown to create a club to compete in the Mid-Ulster Cup. Early matches were played at Tavanagh, Ripley's Field, Armagh Road and Old Shamrock Park which was located close to the site of what is now Clounagh Junior High School. Among the early names to turn out for The Ports were Val Wilson, who would later become High Sheriff for County Armagh; and Harry Bell, whose father owned brickworks on the Armagh Road.
The club won the Irish Junior Cup after defeating Larne at Grosvenor Park on 18 March 1899. That same season, The Ports won their first ever cup double by winning the Mid-Ulster Cup for the first time. Portadown retained the trophy the following season and the following next five seasons before the outbreak of World War I. While the Irish Intermediate League was formed in 1916, and Portadown were selected as one of its inaugural clubs, they withdrew as a large number of the club's players left to fight in World War I. With the return of local men from the war, there was a demand for senior football in the region. A number of junior clubs in the area put aside their rivalries and backed Portadown's bid to join the Irish League. In 1923, the Irish League was expanded from six to ten clubs with the introduction of Newry Town, Ards and Barn. Subsequently, after a number of years of preparation, representatives of the club (including William Mullen, Tom Dawson and a committee) met the league chiefs in June 1924 and were able to present a case for joining the league. Portadown became a full member club of the Irish League together with the readmittance of Belfast Celtic.
Early Irish League years (1924–1932) Portadown played their first senior game, in August 1924, against Glentoran. The first Irish League game played at Shamrock Park was against the champions Queens Island in a game that finished 0–0.
In that first season, Portadown finished fourth, two points behind Belfast Celtic with Queens Island taking second place, behind champions Glentoran. Along the way, The Ports played some memorable matches, including a 4–3 victory over Linfield at Shamrock Park and a 1–0 win against Belfast Celtic in the City Cup.
The 1925–26 season saw a continuation of their consolidation in the league with away victories at both Belfast Celtic and Linfield.
After nine seasons in senior football, Portadown won their first senior trophy, defeating Glentoran 1–0 at Solitude in the Gold Cup Final. Around 5,000 fans travelled to witness the win. With three minutes remaining and the scores level at 0–0, William Johnston scored the winning goal.
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 bus before stopping at St. Mark's Church for speeches. Chairman William Mullen led the speeches before igniting a large 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 Sloan's charge and won the same trophy again in the 1937–38 season before his resignation due to the coming war in 1938. He was replaced by Hugh Bullough, but would return to the club for a brief spell during World War II.
Postwar era (1945–1954) Post-war, Portadown were in the shadow of Mid Ulster rivals Glenavon, who were undergoing their period of glory years in the 1950s that is yet to be repeated by The Lurgan Blues.
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 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 Terry Kingon. His team reached the Ulster Cup final in 1985, defeating Linfield 3–1 in the semi-final at The Oval. But the serious injury in that match to star Scottish striker Billy Paton (who had scored 28 goals the previous season for The Ports) was a devastating blow.
Portadown held Coleraine to a 0–0 draw during the 90 minutes but collapsed in extra-time, 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 9 of the first 14 Irish League games, losing the other five.
Ronnie McFall era (1986–2016)
From December 1986 to 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 several successes to the club, winning their first ever league title in 1989 and league title wins in 1991, 1996 and in 2002; he also won three 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, the latter where he began his managerial career. McFall was the longest serving manager in European football, surpassing Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013. 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 3–2 defeat to Lurgan Celtic in the Irish Cup quarter-final.
In the 1989–90 season, the club finally won the Irish League, and in the final match there was a pitch invasion by the club's fans. In the following 1990–91 season, the club dominated the Irish League, nearly defeating every team in the division. They retained the title that season and they beat rivals Glenavon in the Irish cup final 2–1 to secure the club's first ever league and cup double. The season after was less successful with a number players starting to age and attendances started to fall.
In the 1993–94 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 an updated, 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 favor, 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 eventually being crowned champions. For the 1995–96 season, a new crest was introduced and The Ports won their third league title that season, with Gary Haylock and Sandy Fraser the instigators in the title winning team.
Transitional period (1996–2000) After their title win, the club lost several players to retirement and to other clubs. McFall signed Notts County striker Vinny Arkins, who noted that 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.
Thereafter, the club implemented cost-cutting measures and several aging players retired or moved to larger 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 was Northern Ireland's second tier of football, being an intermediate league at the time. McFall described the time as "the toughest point of his managerial career" but kept several star players and in their first season in the Championship. The club won promotion straight back into senior football, defeating their closest rivals Donegal Celtic 2–0 in the last (and decisive) match of the season. Also, after beating Newry City 1–0 at Mourneview Park on 28 February 2009, Portadown became the first intermediate club to win the Irish League Cup with Scotsman Gary McCutcheon scoring the winning goal.
Top-flight Return, European Football and Cup finals (2009–15)