Irish Premiership: Lisburn Distillery 1-1 Portadown

Lisburn Distillery remain bottom of the Premiership table while Portadown missed out on a top-six spot after this draw at New Grosvenor.

A Ports win would not have been enough to have earned them a top-six slot with Ballinamallard holding Linfield.

Scott Davidson put Distillery ahead on 29 with Portadown's Kevin Braniff and Brian Gartland hitting the woodwork before the break.

Substitute Gary Twigg levelled for the Ports on 62 minutes.

The Whites had late chances to clinch a vital win but Ports keeper David Miskelly denied Stephen Gordon and Michael Halliday.

Darren Murray missed an early chance for Portadown with Miskelly then moving smartly to deny Aaron Smyth at the other end.

Distillery started to boss the contest midway through the first half as Andy Hunter headed a great chance wide and Aaron Boyd also went close for the Whites.

But the home side did take the lead on 29 minutes as Davidson got the final touch after a Jordan Hughes shot looped over Miskelly.

Gartland had a glorious chance to level before the break as he headed against the crossbar from pointblank range.

Twigg, making his return to action after injury, levelled 17 minutes into the second half with a neat near-post finish after good work by Tim Mouncey.

But instead of pushing on, the Ports went back into their shell for the remainder of the contest with Miskelly having to make five saves to deny Gordon and Halliday late on.

The top-six split sees the Ports, last season's Premiership runners-up, missing out on a place in the top half of the table for the first time in 12 seasons.