EXCLUSIVE: 'I can walk around my town with my head held high' - Niall Currie first interview since Portadown exit as he gives his view on time at Shamrock Park, future plans and 'Marmite' reputation
Niall Currie knows. He knows how people see him, as a man and as a manager. He knows the rumours and the reality of his time at Portadown. Most significantly, perhaps, he knows “my teams have beaten all the big clubs”.
Across more than two decades in the dug-out Currie has been viewed in many ways, often contrasting – an old-school boss but embraces TikTok; all heart and no brains but has consistently come out on top against the game’s elite and stands on course for the highest coaching qualification; Marmite but with the Midas touch.
Just over one month from his second exit from his first love, Currie is clear “on we go”.
A boyhood fan who lived streets away from Shamrock Park, Currie has now been handed two shots as manager of hometown club Portadown and, twice, had to see it end. But if 2018 was all about pain, 2026 brings a pragmatic view that “this is the life of a football manager” and Currie stands defiant in his pride at the progress he considers since rejoining Portadown in 2022.
It is a track record he believes will continue to open doors in management and is embracing the next step at 53 years old by declaring Portadown as simply “a chapter closed” and clear “I know I'm competitive with any manager in the country”.
No manager can match Currie’s success in securing promotion out of the game’s second tier and he added Portadown to that list at the first time of asking in 2024, along with reaching the League Cup final as a Championship club and securing Mid-Ulster Cup silverware. He reflects with pride going up as Championship champions then staying up over two successive Premiership campaigns, avoiding the second-season syndrome which so often results in relegation for promoted teams.
It was a campaign that left the Ports outside the coveted – and potentially lucrative – top-six standings but with highlights including wins over Linfield and Larne, respectively the outgoing and incoming league champions. However, with Portadown’s rich history as four-time Irish League champions, survival ultimately was not enough to secure Currie a shot at the next step of his squad evolution – with David Jeffrey now stepping into the Shamrock Park hot seat.
"The club decided to move into a different direction...that’s the life of a football manager,” said Currie on his Portadown departure, in a first interview following that April decision. "The most important thing was to come into the club, move the club on, get the club back and I don't think anybody can argue that I've not done that.
"For me, personally, it's on to the next chapter now. What could possibly hurt me in regards to the way I finished at Portadown?
"If anybody says that I didn't do a good job at Portadown, then that's up to them and their opinion, but I don't think many people would agree and I certainly regard my time at Portadown as very successful.
"And I don't mean to come across arrogant in any way. There's no doubt in my mind...I am absolutely motivated to kick on and I'm motivated to have another opportunity and any club that's got ambition I'm more than interested in joining that party.
"I don't feel I'm done, I feel as if I've got so much more left in me. It's a chapter closed but I know that I'm competitive with any manager in the country.
"My teams have beaten all the big clubs. It doesn't matter whether I'm going in with a low budget or a high budget or whatever, I just want to be involved with an ambitious project.
"I'm as ambitious at 53 years of age than I was at 40...I'm still excited by all things ahead."
Currie points to players in the treatment room and support from the stands as two defining experiences at Portadown.
"We had a very, very hard season in regards to the injuries...we lost eight or nine of our senior players - massive, massive players for months, some big, big hitters,” he said. "Did I get the opportunity to put my best 11 out at any stage this season? Absolutely not.
"This is football and you get injuries but I felt we were extremely unlucky...the squad was good enough to finish in top six but, unfortunately, we lost game-changers for too long and too often.
"But my players gave me everything, every drop...so I take a pride in that as a football manager.
"We beat some of the best teams in the country but we didn't get our best team out regularly enough...I'm so proud to see ‘DJ’ (David Jeffrey) signing so many of my players and so many of the guys that I think will do them very well next season.
"We lost a lot of players to injury but never at any stage do I think I lost the changing room. It was an absolute honour to come back to the club, it was unfinished business for me after the first time.
"I'm gone now but what I will say is that I'm gone in a much better way than the first time and I'm wonderfully happy to have been a part of the club's history.
"I can walk around my town with my head held high.
"Whenever I was hearing rumours during the season (about his future), I just got my head down and continued in my job...it didn't make sense to me but you have to blank it out.
"I think the biggest comfort is that the support from our fans has been unbelievable.
"At the start it's raw (Portadown exit) and then you start getting a wee bit of logic in regards to how the football game works...the fact that the club wanted to move on, you know, you've got to move on too.
"On we go.
"So the fact that fans have been so supportive towards me and get me...it makes me very proud.
"A lot of it has to do with social media in regards to my TikTok accounts and stuff like that where I engaged, consistently, with our supporters...that young fanbase, the heartbeat of the club, the future of the club.
“I got a lot of stick, don't get me wrong, but I just felt it was really important...my obligation as a manager of the club to always appreciate them and thank them.
"I know people have posted things like 'Currie...Marmite’, I'm ‘cringe’. But on the other side of the coin I always felt that engagement with our young supporters was the best way forward.”
Currie is revitalised and ready for the next challenge.
"I’ve recently met up with my close friend and agent Brian Adair...we’re already looking at options across the UK,” he said. “I believe I’m more than good enough in my strengths as a manager and how I get the best out of players.
"I’m in the last stages of my UEFA Pro Licence and can’t thank enough the Irish FA and Sean Paul Murray for the way they have treated me...I believe exciting times lie ahead.
"I have been successful with higher budgets in the past when the pressure's on to win the league
“I still feel as if that full-time opportunity hasn't passed me by, I'm very open.
“I've plenty left in the tank...I’ve been very blessed and lucky to have some real successes so far and believe I can have more ahead.
"I certainly think that I've proven I'm a Premiership manager, so any club that wants to progress and kick on...I’m ready to go.”