Niall Currie 'perfect man' for Portadown as Irish League rival boss clear criticism 'baffles me'
Niall Currie has been described as “the perfect man” for Portadown – with Bannsiders boss Ruaidhri Higgins baffled by any criticism of his opposite number ahead of going head-to-head in pursuit of Premiership points.
Currie’s Ports aim to follow up a first home win in over nine years against the best team last season - Linfield – by this weekend upsetting Coleraine, the best team at present.
Back-to-back tests at Shamrock Park against full-time opposition offer the part-time Ports a significant challenge and Coleraine manager Higgins admits confusion over what he calls “discontent” around Currie’s position.
"They completely deserved their three points last week (against Linfield),” said Higgins. “I thought they were excellent.
"And the bit that frustrates me – about football generally – is a couple of weeks ago there was a bit of discontent at Portadown with Niall Currie.
"And you hear silly things like he's under a bit of pressure, which baffles me because he gets promoted (from the Championship), then they have a brilliant mid-table finish last year.
"And now they're sitting in a decent position again and it's one of them ones...people need to be careful what they wish for.
"Because the job he's done there is exceptional.
"And then, added to the fact last week, he lost his coaching staff (assistant manager Clifford Adams and coach John McAllister left for Dundela) in the lead-up to the Linfield game.
"So it was basically all on him in the lead-up to the Linfield game – they go and get a result like that.
"And I don't think people around Portadown need any more clarification that he's the perfect man for that football club.”
Six weeks on from recording a 4-1 success at Shamrock Park, Coleraine return to take on Portadown in search of maintaining impressive high-flying league form.
"We were absolutely delighted with our intensity (last week’s 4-0 win v Dungannon Swifts)...I think that was the best we've been out of possession,” said Higgins. “We were really, really aggressive in how we pressed.
"At least three, possibly all four, of the goals came from us winning the ball back from the opposition, so that's extremely pleasing.”
Higgins heads to Portadown with a warning message around the talents of Currie’s hosts.
“When you look at the attacking options they have...real, real energy, real counter-attacking threat,” he said. "We're going to have to defend counter-attacks well, we're going to have to defend one-v-one situations well.
"And then stamp our own authority on the game.”
Coleraine make the trip aiming to enhance the top-flight division’s best points return on the road.
“We have to take satisfaction from that...but we're only 11 games,” said Higgins. “We've been good, by and large, on the road...we've lost one and won the rest. ”They're a really good group...but we know that there's a lot of work ahead and we're solely focused on becoming better.
"And I actually think we will get better.”