Key Portadown star signs contract extension as Niall Currie 'will fight to continue to build'

McCarey joined the Ports after leaving Glentoran during the summer and has made at immediate impact, playing a key role in helping Currie’s side enjoy a superb return to life in the Premiership.

Only Glentoran goalkeeper Daniel Gyollai (seven) has kept more league clean sheets so far this term than McCarey (six) while his tally of 69 saves puts him only behind Loughgall shot-stopper Nathan Gartside (82).

Statistics website Sofascore has awarded the 32-year-old an average match rating of 7.59 across 18 Premiership matches this season – only Linfield star Joel Cooper (7.88), who has scored nine goals and provided six assists for the league leaders, can boast a higher score.

"We’re delighted to get the big man on board for next season,” Currie told the club’s website. “Hopefully we’re showing our wonderful supporters that we are not a club that just accepts losing our best players, we will fight to continue to build as there is no other way to progress if the big boys are just going to come in and pluck our assets.

“Aaron is loving his football again and has been a massive presence both on the pitch and off it, we’re over the moon to have another year with him.”

Currie has previously hailed McCarey, who also spent time on the books of Wolves, Walsall, York City, Portsmouth, Bury, Ross County, Dundalk and Cliftonville, as the Premiership’s best in his position.

"We had a goalkeeper lined up and were on the verge of signing him, but then McCarey came out of the blue,” he said earlier this season. “There was talk about him retiring but I had contact with him and got him up here for a chat...thankfully we persuaded him.

"I think a goalkeeper's best years are 32-34. Certainly when I played when I was in my 30's I felt at my best with better decision-making, more experience, leadership, communication and you can still save shots.

"It was a massive, massive signing and an area of the pitch we were desperately looking to bring experience in. He has plenty left in the tank and I think we have the best keeper in the league - I wouldn't swap him for anyone else in this league.

"Not only is he a fantastic goalkeeper, but he's a fantastic character around the changing room, a winner and we need people like that. I've always said if you get the right people in the changing room it manages itself.

"If I have the right characters I don't need to say anything and we have some strong characters that aren't afraid to say their piece and I like that."