Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Belfast Live
Belfast Live
Sport
Steven Crawford

Niall Currie accepts real tests lie ahead for Portadown

It was a baptism of fire for Niall Currie as he took over the reins at Portadown for a second time.

The 50-year-old returned to Shamrock Park last week after the club parted company with Paul Doolin.

Currie, who previously managed the club between 2016 and 2018, knows the job awaiting him as the Ports sit bottom of the Danske Bank Premiership with only a single point won to date.

Read next: Frankie Wilson tributes paid as football and GAA remember "living legend"

The scale of the challenge was reinforced on Saturday as they fell to a 4-0 defeat at Coleraine.

Paddy McNally's early own goal put the visitors on the back foot before Lee Lynch doubled the lead for Coleraine on 10 minutes.

Second half goals from Matthew Shevlin and James McLaughlin completed the rout but Currie remained positive.

“Our season isn’t going to be judged against Coleraine, Cliftonville, Larne, Glentoran and teams like that," he said.

“We have Linfield and Larne in the next couple of weeks and we probably won’t be judged against them, but then we have Carrick.

“Those are exactly the games we need to make sure we pick up points in but I also need to know in the next few weeks what my best team is.

“I took advice from people for today, I watched a few videos and we tried a new system today after a 45 minute training session.

“It’s been a hectic week, everything happened very quickly and there’s a few players in the changing room that I don’t even know their first names.

“Whilst we’re not going to be judged on today, there’s a lot to work on and there’s no doubt about that."

READ NEXT:

Sign up to our free sports newsletter to get the latest headlines to your inbox.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.