Mud, madness and manager skills: The story behind the success of Portadown FC’s viral videos

Matt Wright was among the Portadown fans whose cheers were put on hold when Adam Salley’s goalbound shot against Queen’s University got stuck in a muddy goalmouth.
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Thankfully for football fans around the world who enjoy watching the game’s weird and wonderful moments, the 24-year-old was manning a video camera at the Championship game on February 15.

The clip was posted to Ports TV the following day and by that evening it had gone viral with websites such as Sky Sports and ESPN sharing it on.

Matt, who is a member of Portadown’s media team, said: “I don’t always film the clips, Matt Gregg would usually be the videographer, but he was on holidays so I had the pleasure of grabbing this clip.

“We’ve had about four (video clips) this season that have made a significant impact nationally, but this is by far the biggest we’ve ever had.

“There was a clip of Matthew Tipton, the Portadown manager, during an Irish Cup game, he did a fancy skill on the sideline. There’s another couple of videos of worldie saves that our keeper Bobby Edwards had made. He’s away over to the MLS in America.

“All those ones had done well, but I knew straight away this one was going to be big.”

After Salley’s goalbound shot got stuck in the mud, team mate Chris Lavery followed up to score in a game which finished 7-1 to the Ports.

Portadown's Adam Salley thinks he's scored against Queen's University only to be denied by a muddy goalmouthPortadown's Adam Salley thinks he's scored against Queen's University only to be denied by a muddy goalmouth
Portadown's Adam Salley thinks he's scored against Queen's University only to be denied by a muddy goalmouth

Matt said: “After the match I said to (Adam), ‘I hope you don’t mind, we’re going to try and get this to go out a bit’. He was grand about it, but then he’d scored a hat-trick in the second half so he wasn’t too bothered about the one that got away.”

The business student from Portadown added: “I always knew the power of social media but this has just taken it to a whole new level for me. I’m blown away by how quickly it went and the scale of it.

“We know it’s been viewed at least 10 million times, but I know it’s more than that because it’s being shared in places we don’t even know about.

“We put it up the morning after the game and by the evening it was everywhere.

Matt Wright from Portadown FC's media teamMatt Wright from Portadown FC's media team
Matt Wright from Portadown FC's media team

“Sky Sports Football were fairly quickly onto us, ESPN as well. Soccer AM came a bit later and it’s been on sports channels in Italy. 433 – the Instagram page – had the biggest share of views for us, nearly five million.

“Our main sponsor Manfreight gets great coverage out of it. From a commercial point of view it makes sense for the club to allow others to share it and credit back to us.”

He added: “You do have to scream and shout a bit to get noticed down here in the Championship.

“We’ve a great media team here and when you film so much you do get the odd cracker, so why not try and share it? You get a laugh out of it and it creates a great buzz around the club.”