Niall Currie calls for Portadown improvements with goals conceded 'killing us'
Portadown manager Niall Currie insists his side “have to start shutting the back door a bit more” with their current defensive record “killing us”.
The Ports enjoyed a superb Premiership return last season and impressive home form set the platform – only champions Linfield collected more points at their own ground than Currie’s side while they conceded just 19 times across 20 matches.
However, they’ve already leaked 12 in five fixtures this time around at Shamrock Park while no top-flight team has conceded more than their overall total of 20.
Last Friday’s 4-1 home defeat to Bangor was a hammer blow for Currie, who labelled the performance as “the lowest I’ve seen from any of my teams in a very long time” and issued an apology to the club’s supporters.
Mid-Ulster rivals Glenavon (nine) are the sole team to have conceded more away goals than Portadown (eight) across the early stages of this season and Currie will hope for a much-improved display when they travel to Solitude for a Saturday showdown with Cliftonville.
"We have to start shutting the back door a bit more,” Currie told the club’s media channel. “I think our defensive record was as good as any team last year and the goals we are conceding at the moment are killing us.
"You’ll not get anything when you’re giving the goals away that we are. It’s simply not good enough at this level.
"We will get back on train again and we’ve always said we need to have resilience, but (Bangor performance) was hugely disappointing.”
Cliftonville are set to be without key duo Rory Hale and Jonny Addis after the pair were both sent off in last weekend’s 2-1 league defeat to Dungannon Swifts at Stangmore Park – a result which ended their three-game winning run.
The Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL) confirmed this week that Cliftonville’s North Belfast Derby clash against Crusaders, which was scheduled for October 11 at Seaview, has been postponed due to international call-ups.
Larne’s home fixture against champions Linfield has also been pushed back due to the same reason while Carrick Rangers vs Bangor, which was abandoned after Paul Heatley collided with a perimeter wall in the 53rd minute, will be replayed in its entirety.