Niall Currie wants Portadown to have no breaks in the chain ahead of Crusaders visit
After labelling his side’s performance as “poor” last time out, Portadown boss Niall Currie has called on his players to strengthen up defensively.
The men from County Armagh were put to the sword by Larne last Friday night as a brace from Mark Randall, added to strikes from Tiarnan O’Connor and Matthew Lusty meant it was away day blues for Currie’s men.
It now means Portadown have started the campaign by losing three and winning one of their opening four games.
Currie remarked how individual errors are continuing to plague his side as he eyes defensive improvements ahead of the visit of Crusaders this evening.
"That's probably the biggest defeat we've had from when we got back in,” he said.
"With football...there's not much you can do about individual errors.
"Unfortunately, we're making some, we're conceding some really poor goals at the minute.
"So, listen, we were a really, really good defensive unit last year. We've got to get back to being that again but that's a collective thing, that comes from your midfield, it comes from your wide men working, it comes from your front line working.
"We've got to get back to being a collective again, instead of a few, you know, one link break in a chain is a break...the chain no longer works.
"We've got to make sure everybody understands the chain has to stay together.”
The manner of the goals his side conceded at Inver Park were cause for concern for Currie – although the Ports supremo admitted he was baffled by the awarding of the first penalty for the Inver Reds.
He commented: "I think we were poor. You've got to be honest about it. We gave away shocking goals.
"We weren't helped by Tim's decision for the third goal. The guy's got his hands down, I don't know where he wants him to put his hands, but ultimately, we gave the ball away far too much in the first half.
"We had numerous opportunities and transitions to turn the ball over again... but we kept giving the ball back to them. Quite frankly, we were so poor in the first half on the ball.”
Speaking before travelling to Inver Park last Friday, Currie was less than impressed that his part-time team had to play three Premiership games across a period of six days.
When asked if he still felt that sentiment after the full-time whistle, Currie quipped: "Well, I think it's extremely unreasonable. I think that, as I've said before, I'm all for Friday night games, Sunday games.
"I love what NIFL's doing on that front...but you've got to draw the line somewhere.
"We're the only team playing our third game in six days. So, to me, it should have been a decision made, no, just keep it to Saturday.
"I know Larne's done everything by the book, they put their request in early, but I think, you know, for our sake, and I'm certainly not making excuses about that for tonight, but what could we do? We haven't been able to train them all week.
"We haven't been able to do anything with them all week, bar telling them to put their feet up and rest up.”