Portadown assistant manager Clifford Adams insists Jay Riley’s first club start in their 6-1 Mid-Ulster Cup win over Oxford Sunnyside was just rewards for hard work produced during pre-season and believes the Premiership outfit are starting to show signs of their undoubted attacking potential.

Paul McElroy, making his maiden senior start of the campaign, scored from the penalty spot while summer recruit Ben Wylie netted his first Ports goal since arriving from Cliftonville – as did former Glentoran attacker Shay McCartan with Niall Currie’s men scoring six times in 30 second-half minutes after initially falling behind.

Zach Cowan, Josh Ukek and Ahu Obhakhan, who found the net in Friday’s 2-2 league draw with Linfield, were also on target at Shamrock Park on a night where Currie handed out opportunities, including to Riley.

The 19-year-old joined Portadown in February having previously been on the books of Coleraine, Institute, Airdrieonians and Gretna 2008.

placeholder image — Niall Currie with his backroom staff, including assistant manager Clifford Adams (far right). PIC: David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press

With Lee Chapman arguably the club’s most consistent performer as they booked their top-flight return last season, right-back Riley has had to bide his time for minutes and Adams is fully confident he has the ability to make an impact when required.

"Jay has came in and worked so hard in pre-season,” he told the club’s media channel. “He came here at the end of last season coming back (from Scotland) and had a lot of work to do...he put in some work during pre-season.

"Chappers is in there at right-back and he's steady Eddie every week so Jay knows he has to wait his chance but we believe Jay has all the attributes to step in when needed. You can see tonight the lad has boundless energy - he must have ran the full length of the field between a few lay-offs and then Shay McCartan's finish.

"We've been doing a lot of work on the attacking side of things and you can see in the final-third with the one-two passes, lay-offs - it's not easy to try and get it going because you're not full-time and you only have a certain amount of time on a Tuesday and Thursday night to build patterns.

"You can see it over the last couple of games starting to kick in - it's not fluent by any means, but you can see them taking it on board which is pleasing from our side."

Having picked up consecutive draws against Loughgall and Linfield, Portadown will now go in search of their first Premiership win of the season when they travel to Carrick Rangers, who had their own midweek cup success after beating Bangor 4-0 in the Co Antrim Shield, on Saturday afternoon.

"Whether it's Linfield, Glentoran or whoever, we believe we can get something from the game,” added Adams. “Carrick are a big, physical, strong side and they play a certain way and it's very effective.

"They've experience and quality with well-seasoned pros and it's going to be hard. They finished in the play-off spot last season so anything we get will be well deserved."