PORT Glasgow crashed back to earth after the previous week’s six-goal victory, as they stumbled to a heavy defeat at Parklea on Saturday.

It was an equally heavy fall from grace for striker Scott Nugent, whose red card just before half-time damaged not only his team’s chances of getting anything from this match, but also means an inevitable suspension.

The Port started with just the one change from the 11 who began in the 6-0 Scottish Cup win last Saturday, with Kearn Docherty in for the suspended Paul Gordon.

And it looked promising in the early stages, with Nugent narrowly missing with a header after only two minutes.

But the Burgh then took command, and went ahead 10 minutes in.

A cross-field ball found Neil Dinnen, who cut inside before unleashing a thunderbolt past Bryan Tucker in the Port goal.

Soon afterwards it was 2-0, when a corner was cleared to the edge of the box, from where Martin McIntyre blasted home.

Then came Nugent’s ordering-off, given for kicking out at an opposing player who had shielded the ball from him as it was going out of play.

But bizarrely there then followed the Port’s best spell of play in the match.

Paul Coyle scored with a header from a Craig McCormick corner kick, then Scott Paterson got on the end of an Eddie Walton head-flick to bundle the ball home, but the effort was ruled offside by referee Connor Ashwood.

The young defender then saved the day at the other end with a goal-line clearance, as the 10-man Port went in at the interval just 2-1 behind.

The opening period of the second half was full of incident.

Burgh again opened up a two-goal gap when Gareth Brown scored with a header from a corner kick, but the Port fought back once more, and a tremendous goal from Alan Jamieson brought it back to just 3-2 down.

Whistler Ashwood’s red card then made an appearance again, this time for a bad challenge from the Burgh’s Ross Perrie. But within two minutes it was the visitors who scored again, with Grant Kelly prodding home from close range to restore their two-goal advantage at 4-2.

The Port then huffed and puffed to little effect, the only near things being a Graham Black effort blocked by the visiting keeper, and a shot from Brendan Sharpe which came close.

But an impressive Burgh team put the cap on a fine display with their fifth goal nine minutes from time, with McIntyre getting his second of the game, after a shot was parried by Tucker but fell kindly to the striker just a few yards out.

Port Glasgow’s assistant manager, Scott Jackson, admitted his side was never at the races.

He said: “I was really disappointed with that performance, especially as we fell well short of the standard we have set ourselves. Johnstone Burgh played well and seemed to be the hungrier side all over the park, but we lost some really poor goals.

“Now it is all about how we react for our next match against Royal Albert on Saturday.” PORT GLASGOW: Tucker, Docherty, Coyle, Walton, Paterson, Gault (Sharpe 76), Jamieson, Grana, Nugent, Bowie (Black 68), McCormick (Kearns 55). Subs not used: Ellis, McAfee.

Port Glasgow Juniors are sponsored by Regents Vehicle Sales, Greenock, and MAC HSL Ltd.