Lee Bonis scored a brace against his former club as Larne ran out comfortable 4-0 winners against Portadown at Inver Park.
Bonis got the goalscoring underway in the first half, before he added to his tally after the break with Kofi Balmer and Navid Nasseri also on the scoresheet, as the Invermen moved up to fourth in the table.
Larne made a bright start to the game, on the back of their 3-0 success away to Warrenpoint in midweek.
They almost broke the deadlock as early as the 8th minute. Ben Doherty took an exquisite touch got him in behind the Portadown defence on the right and his cross found Davy McDaid, but his goalbound effort from 12 yards out was blocked by fellow Larne striker Ronan Hale.
They did take the lead on 23 minutes however, with a similar move. This time McDaid picked out the run of Tomas Cosgrove on the right and his cross was slammed home by Bonis at the near post.
Despite dominating much of the play, it took Larne until the 58th minute for Larne to double their advantage.
Ben Doherty’s corner on the right was swept home by defender Kofi Balmer at the back post.
The game was well and truly killed as a contest when Bonis bagged his second of the day four minutes later.
Davy McDaid surged into the box on the left and fired a fierce effort at Ports’ keeper Jethren Barr, which he claimed he had under his control before Bonis tapped home from close range.
With Portadown’s resistance well and truly broken by this point Larne made it four on 72 minutes.
Tomas Cosgrove was once again involved on the right as he swept the ball into the box, it was cleared only as far as sub Navid Nasseri on the edge of the box and he made no mistake by curling into the bottom right corner.
Larne: Devlin, Balmer, Watson, Sule, Herron (’69 Mitchell), Hale (’64 Scott), McDaid (’68 Nasseri), Doherty (’68 Lynch), Bonis, Cosgrove, Jarvis
Unused subs: Argyrides, Adair, Aretzis
Portadown: Barr, Hall, Ruddy, Finnegan, McKeown (’69 McCallum), Tipton (J Doherty), Salley, Conaty (’69 Smith), Warde (’55 Teggart), Dupree (’46 Lavery), Dugan
Unused subs: Doherty, Glenfield
Referee: Raymond Crangle
