Portadown, Carrick Rangers and Glenavon all picked up important wins as attention in the Danske Bank Premiership focused on the lower half of the table.

Portadown produced arguably the performance of the day with victory over Newry City in a seven goal thriller at The Showgrounds.

Niall Currie's side looked to be cruising to a comfortable victory after goals from Stephen Teggart and Paul McElroy blasted them into a commanding lead with barely 20 minutes on the clock.

However Newry City hit back courtesy of a Christopher Rodgers own goal and then a John McGovern finish right on the stroke of half-time.

Brian Healy then struck with ten minutes remaining to seemingly grind out an important victory for City, but they reckoned without two stoppage time goals from Josh Archer and Benny Igiehon to secure the points for the Ports.

And Portadown’s survival hopes had been handed a boost earlier in the afternoon after nearest rivals Dungannon Swifts went down by a single goal at home to Carrick Rangers.

David Cushley grabbed the winner just before the break in trademark fashion with a superb dipping volley from around 30 yards out.

That win keeps Rangers in seventh spot and in pole position for an end of season European play-off, but they will have to contend with the challenge of a revived Glenavon after they defeated Glentoran at the BetMcLean Oval to collect their second win on the bounce.

Conor McCloskey opened the scoring midway through the first half with a low finish into the bottom left corner, with Matthew Fitzpatrick making sure for Gary Hamilton’s side with just over a quarter-of-an-hour remaining.