[1] The Mid Ulster Football Association was established in 1887 and a series of meetings were held in the Young Men's Institute in Edward Street in Portadown to create a club to compete in the Mid-Ulster Cup.

Early matches were played at Tavanagh, Ripley's Field, Armagh Road and Old Shamrock Park which was located close to the site of what is now Clounagh Junior High School.

In that first season, Portadown finished fourth, two points behind Belfast Celtic with Queens Island taking second place, behind champions Glentoran.

Along the way, The Ports played some memorable matches, including a 4–3 victory over Linfield at Shamrock Park and a 1–0 win against Belfast Celtic in the City Cup.

In 1977, the club appointed former Bangor Bertie Neil, famed for the development of Northern Ireland legend and now Sky Sports commentator Gerry Armstrong.

Deprived of his scoring qualities for the rest of the season, Portadown struggled financially and this resulted in the sale of the training ground to meet creditors' demands.

Kingon did his best with limited resources and one of the fascinating features of his season in charge at Shamrock Park was the large number of drawn games involving Portadown.

Glenavon raced into a two-goal lead against Portadown at Mourneview Park, and with Linfield drawing with Glentoran, The Lurgan Blues would have won their first league title in 34 years.

The club won promotion straight back into senior football, defeating their closest rivals Donegal Celtic 2–0 in the last (and decisive) match of the season.

[5] The 2011–12 season saw The Ports recover and mount a title challenge that was largely spearheaded by Welsh striker Matthew Tipton, with themselves and Linfield the runaway leaders in the race.

The Ports would take on Slaven Belupo of Croatia in the next round, with the promise of a mouth watering tie against La Liga side Athletic Bilbao should they progress.

Any hopes of progression were quickly dashed when the Ports lost 6–0 at the Gradski stadion Ivan Kušek-Apaš, being hampered by the unavailability of goalkeeper David Miskelly, with a respectable 4–2 defeat at Shamrock Park ending the clubs time in Europe, its last to date.

The 2013–14 season was a largely frustrating one of what might have been, with Gary Twigg playing a valuable part and scoring regularly, along with in-form young striker Darren Murray and some of Kevin Braniff's moments of sheer class displayed at times and the skill of Peter McMahon.

This had meant a lot was expected of the club to challenge for the title and they started the season with an impressive 3–0 win over Warren Feeney's Linfield and several wins over Glenavon and eventual champions Crusaders They also showed the capability of being champions when in a match against basement side Institute; with the match leveled at 1–1 in the dying minutes, Michael Gault scored a late, long distance effort to secure the three points.

Portadown had levelled it 2–2 through Peter McMahon and Gary Twigg goals, before Eoin Bradley was hauled down by Ross Redman and a last-minute penalty was dispatched by Andy McGory to give the Lurgan Blues European football.

The Irish Cup final at The Oval saw the Ports go into the game as favourites, in what was initially quite a cagey affair on an incredibly wet day in East Belfast.

Before the start of 2016–17 season, the club was fined £10,000 which was halved on appeal to £5,000 and received a one-year ban on signing professional contracts until June 2017 for not declaring extra payments made to striker Gary Twigg for performing coaching work over the summer.

[12] Despite starting the season with a major disadvantage, McGibbons side produced victories over Carrick Rangers and Ballinamallard United and were narrowly beaten by many of the teams higher up in the table.

Arkins won his first official match in charge as interim manager in a 2–1 win against Ballinamallard United with goals from Stephen Hughes and a penalty from Niall Henderson.

On 5 December 2016, Portadown-born Niall Currie was appointed as manager after successfully agreeing his release from Ards with him and his loyal assistant Jay Willis joining the club.

Prior to the match, it was announced that longtime goalkeeper David Miskelly would be retiring immediately due to a shoulder injury sustained the previous season after serving 12 years and making over 400 appearances with the club.

However, the Lurgan Blues had seemingly grabbed a point with them pulling a goal back within the last ten minutes and Sykes scoring a long distance free kick in the dying seconds of the game amid wild scenes of celebration from the Glenavon supporters.

Portadown's luck had finally changed, however, with it later being found that Glenavon had fielded defender David Elebert, who was due to serve a suspension through yellow cards picked up in reserve league fixtures with the Lurgan side, receiving a fine, and the Ports being awarded a 3–0 win and a valuable 3 three points.

[14] In February 2018 it was confirmed that Portadown had made an approach and had been successful in appointing ex striker and Warrenpoint Town boss Matthew Tipton with David Miskelly joining as his assistant.

[15] In Tiptons first game in charge the Ports secured a 1–1 draw with league leaders Institute and 4 consecutive wins followed against Loughgall, Newry City and Harland and Wolff Welders with anticipation building that a play off spot would have been very much possible.

[citation needed] The following season, Tipton would seek to shape the Portadown squad to his liking, making a total of 16 signings notably Kevin Braniff and Johnny Flynn on free transfers from Ballymena United, former players Darren Murray and Sean Mackle returned to the club from Crusaders and Warrenpoint Town respectively.

As the season progressed, they often failed to pick up points away from home that saw them ultimately finish in third place behind Larne and Carrick Rangers with the latter overcoming the men in red in a promotion playoff which the Gers won 2–0.

The following season proved to be a more difficult one, which saw the departure of manager Matthew Tipton with the club languishing in the relegation play-off place, under threat from the chasing Warrenpoint Town.

[21] Currie would bring in former Glenavon striker and free agent Greg Moorhouse, who would prove a needed addition to address the Ports lack of goals.

Currie would sign heavily in the January transfer window, bringing in players from former club Dundela, as well as notably Cathair Friel and Alan O'Sullivan, on loan from Coleraine and Warrenpoint Town respectively, and Paul McElroy from Ballymena United.