Ballymena United secured just their second league win of the season and their first since the opening day with a hard earned 2-0 home victory over Portadown.

Finley Thorndike broke the deadlock just after the hour with his first goal of the season before top scorer Igor Rutkowski doubled their advantage eight minutes from the end.

Portadown had their chances, especially in the first half, but were denied by a number of fine stops from David Walsh in the home goal.

The result meant it was an unhappy return to the Showgrounds for former Ballymena Utd boss David Jeffrey who is still searching for a first win as manager of the Shamrock Park club.

The visitors created the better chances in the opening 45 minutes.

First, Sean O'Mahoney, playing as a lone striker, should have done better when presented with an opportunity by Finn Flanagan but he screwed his right foot shot the wrong side of the post when well placed.

Walsh was the busier of the two goalkeepers and he twice denied Portadown with instinctive saves.

First, he dived smartly to his left to deny Divin Isamala who got on the end of a deep Matthew Carson free-kick, before he somehow managed to save Baris Altintop's header at the second attempt from a Ben Kennedy corner.

At the other end Aaron McCarey had to be alert to turn away a goal bound Caoimhin McConnell effort from just outside the penalty area in the home side's best attack of the first half.

But the Portadown keeper was powerless to prevent the hosts from breaking the deadlock just after the hour.

There appeared to be little on when former Crusaders midfielder Thorndike took possession of the ball just inside the Portadown penalty area.

However, a quick sidestep created the room for a shot which he curled delightfully into the top corner of the net past the despairing dive of the goalkeeper for his first league goal of the season.

Ballymena doubled their cushion eight minutes from full-time thanks to another moment of quality, this time from leading goalscorer Rutkowski.

The striker exchanged passes with Sean Murray just inside the penalty area before picking his spot and angling his shot past McCarey for his fourth Premiership goal of the season to make the game safe.

Ballymena head coach Oran Kearney: "We're delighted with the three points. I don't think we've got our desserts over the past few weeks with results and I keep saying that our performances have been good.

"It's been building and the players knew it as well and when you keep knocking on the door and moving in that direction you finally get your answers.

"Today probably wasn't our best performance, we weren't firing on all cylinders and Portadown frustrated for long periods, but we got a bit of brilliance when we needed it.

"We've seen Finley doing that loads in training and hopefully that's the first of many, there's so much more to come from him, and the second one is straight off the training ground and a great finish from Igor."

Portadown manager David Jeffrey: "We came in at half-time thinking thinking we could have been two or three to the good as I thought the quality of our play in the first half was first class.

"Second half we must give credit, Ballymena came back into it and the two goals were pretty special. It was an excellent finish from Finley Thorndike for the first goal and we left the back door open for the second goal.

"We're coming away feeling very much that we deserved something from the game but didn't get what we deserved. I thought we showed a brightness about us, a resilience, but when you don't take your chances invariably you can be punished.

"We're going away disappointed that we didn't get rewarded for our efforts."