Niall Currie hails Portadown 'smasher' who will 'only get better' after starring in opening Irish League win
Portadown picked up their first Premiership win of the season with a 4-1 triumph over Dungannon Swifts at Stangmore Park on Saturday afternoon.
Goals from Eamon Fyfe, Josh Ukek and a Jordan Gibson brace secured all three points in County Tyrone.
Here’s what manager Niall Currie had to say after the match:
THOUGHTS ON THE GAME?
“Delighted. Everybody's going to talk about the sending off and stuff like that. I thought for the first 20 minutes of the game there was only one team.
"We could have been three or four to the good. Everybody forgets that, you know what I mean?
"So, I think we've come here and I thought for the first half an hour of the game we were brilliant. I don’t overcook things with my players, as you know, but I thought we were well worthy of our 2-0 lead. Could have been actually more.
“We stretched them, we pressed high. We took a gamble today. We went and pressed them high to try and stop them playing out from the back.
"We rolled the dice and I just told the players to be brave. We put a front four pressing and it worked.
"We ended up with them going long, us turning the ball over. And I thought we broke out on them numerous, numerous times in the first half an hour. Got our 2-0 lead, two goals up.
“And then the penalty gives them the lifeline again. I know it ended up comfortable for us, but I still think we were pretty decent today. I don't want anybody taking that away from us.”
LOT OF CARDS TODAY FOR BOTH TEAMS?
“Well, you find that sometimes, don't you? There are certain new directives. We're staying in control of things.
"Listen, I'm not one for seeing lots of cards, but I think he (referee Steven Gregg) was justified in some of them today, to be honest with you.
"I know I'll probably get criticised for it. I'm sure Rodney (McAree) doesn't agree, but I might be speaking with bias, but I thought most of his decisions were okay.
“I praised Shane Andrews last week and I'm not going to praise Stevie as well – I've got to be careful about that!
“Listen, I know there's a lot of frustration from the Swifts. But I thought from our point of view, his decisions weren't too bad.”
JAMES TEELAN SEEMS A STAR FOR YOU?
"He’s had a brilliant pre-season. He's lit it up in pre-season. He's only a baby. He's only 22 years of age.
"This kid was thought of for big, big things when Stephen Baxter took him to the Crues for quite a reasonable fee at the time.
“We've just got him back enjoying his football. That's the biggest thing that I think we can offer.
"Everybody knows our club's huge, but I think the biggest thing that we can offer players coming to our club is they’ll enjoy their football. They’ll get a smile on their face.
"All we ask in return is that they empty their tanks and they give us every drop that they have on a football pitch. It's up to me to make sure they've got the quality. James is a smasher.
“And again, he's a great kid. He's only going to get better. He's still got a lot to learn. He's still raw in certain instances.
"He can get away from men, he can beat men and then he can put the ball in the stand or something! So we'll just have to smooth a few things out with him.
"He's a rough diamond that we're over the moon to have.
“Pace hurts teams — nobody likes playing against pace. We've got him and Josh Ukek on either side, we've got Ray Tulloch to come in as well, who’s lightning.
"So we're quite excited. We've been without Ray, Shay McCartan and Rabby (Minzamba) for the first two games, which is a huge blow to us.
“But the boys have come in today. Ben Wylie played eight today – fantastic. Eamon Fyfe played 10 today, ran himself into a standstill.
"Our back line was really good today, big and strong, and our full-backs were excellent. It was a really good team performance.”