Irish Premiership: Portadown 3-3 Cliftonville

Substitute Joshua Barton was the unlikely hero as Portadown recovered from two goals down to secure a draw against Cliftonville at Shamrock Park.

Liam Boyce stooped low to head in the opener on 14 minutes and Martin Murray tapped in the second 10 minutes later.

Darren Murray scored with a penalty on 54 minutes, but Murray slammed the ball into the top corner in the 66th minute.

Barton saw his shot deflected into the net on 83 minutes and then fired into the bottom corner two minutes later.

The champions went into the game without suspended top-scorer Joe Gormley, while Ports manager Ronnie McFall was celebrating his 1000th league game in football management.

Liam Boyce scored Cliftonville's opening goal of the game

Martin Murray provided the cross from the right for Boyce's goal and then Gary Twigg turned in the box and struck a left-foot shot wide.

Murray completed a fine move with a simple finish after Boyce unselfishly squared the ball to him.

Before half-time, Diarmuid O'Carroll had the ball in the back of the net but the flag was up for offside.

Darren Murray gave Portadown a lifeline by scoring from the spot after Ronan Scannell was adjudged to have handled in the area, but Martin Murray scored on the counter-attack to restore his side's two-goal advantage.

Second-half substitute Barton then stepped up to the mark with a late brace of goals and Twigg could have grabbed a winner but his effort hit the post.

"I don't think we played particularly well - we were all over the place at various times and lost our discipline but we showed good character to come back and get a point," said McFall.

Cliftonville drop to fourth in the Premiership while Glentoran remain fifth.