Larne edge past Sky Blues as Ports beat Crues

Larne brought Ballymena United's winning start to the season to an end as they edged out the Sky Blues 1-0 at Inver Park.

Benji Magee scored the opener after eight minutes, with Jim Ervin's side left to rue a penalty miss from Ben Kennedy before half-time as Dan Bent added a late second in injury-time.

Portadown bounced back from recent back-to-back league defeats to beat Crusaders 2-1 at Shamrock Park.

Rhys Annett netted the opener on his first start for the club before Jordan Forsythe equalised after a well-worked Crusaders move.

Substitute Eamon Fyfe's precise finish from the edge of the box restored the Ports' advantage and helped them take home all three points.

The home side struck first in the eighth minute. There initially appeared to be little danger as Matty Lusty collected the ball on the right-hand side with plenty of Ballymena players in front of him but he surged past them before cutting the ball across the face of goal for the in-rushing Magee to sweep a shot past Sean O'Neill.

The home side might well have doubled their advantage soon afterwards when Tomas Cosgrove ghosted in behind the Ballymena defence unmarked to meet Mark Randall's free-kick, but he couldn't keep his header on target.

Ballymena's first effort came from Kennedy, who forced Rohan Ferguson to tip his rising drive over the crossbar.

The Sky Blues passed up a glorious chance to equalise on the stroke of half-time after Magee was adjudged to have clipped Kennedy on the edge of the box, but Ferguson dived to his right to palm away Kennedy's poorly-struck spot kick.

Larne almost grabbed a second in first-half stoppage time when Magee anticipated Stephen O'Donnell's headed back-pass, but his first-time half-volley cleared the crossbar with O'Neill stranded.

Ballymena dominated the opening stages of the second period, but Larne came close to doubling their lead on 64 minutes when substitute Conor McKendry's shot rattled off the crossbar after he was teed up by Lusty.

McKendry then set up Tiarnan O'Connor, whose shot from an acute angle was beaten behind by O'Neill.

The home side eventually wrapped up the points deep in stoppage time when Bent seized upon a poor headed clearance from a free-kick and carefully guided a shot into the bottom corner.

Fraser Bryden had two chances to give the away side an early lead but headed wide of the left-hand post from close range before guiding Brendan Hamilton's free-kick from 25-yards narrowly off target.

A last gasp intervention from Forsythe at the other end then denied Lee Chapman's delivery across the face of goal from sneaking into the bottom corner.

Portadown broke the deadlock with just three minute to go until the break when Lewis Barr failed to clear Chapman's low pass forward to Annett, who made no mistake when left one-on-one.

Crusaders responded and levelled the game in the 52nd minute when Forsythe dispatched Adam Brooks forward.

The striker then showed great skill to weave around his marker and travelled into the box before returning the ball back to Forsythe at the edge of the box to fire home.

Aaron McCarey then palmed Lloyd Anderson's header over the crossbar to deny Crusaders a quick second goal.

Substitute Fyfe restored Niall Currie's sides' lead on 74 minutes when he coolly converted the rebound of Annett's effort which had been denied by stopper Tuffey.