Portadown boss Niall Currie confident 'there won't be a better striker in the Championship' than his star man

The Shamrock Park outfit announced the homecoming of Ross Redman on Tuesday evening alongside the acquisition of Caolin Coyle as Currie looks to get business done early ahead of pre-season.

Goalkeeper Aaron Hogg has also joined from Carrick Rangers, striker Alan O’Sullivan signed a permanent deal while Paul McElroy, Chris Rodgers, Mark Russell, Patrick McNally and Lee Chapman have all committed their future to the club.

Retaining the services of McElroy on a three-year deal was a real statement of intent from the club – and arguably the most important piece of business they will do this summer – with the former Ballymena United man netting six times in 13 league games as the Ports narrowly missed out on preserving their top-flight status.

This will be the 28-year-old’s first Championship campaign and Currie believes he has the best striker in the league at his disposal.

"You always need something to trigger things,” he told PortsTV. “Chrissy Rodgers was on board straight away - he has loved every moment of being at this club and realises the size of the club, the project and we're going to have to go into the trenches next season.

"We're going to be the team everybody wants to beat, rightly so. He was very easy to get over the line.

"He was adamant he was staying and I could have offered Chrissy not a penny and he would have probably come down here and played. He's a top lad and we're delighted to have him and in the Championship next season we're going to need strong boys like that and he has athleticism too.

"We're trying to build a nice mixture. With Caolin and Chappers in the team it gives us real energy, pace and strength. Chrissy's mobility around the back will be fantastic for us.

"We're slowly and surely getting there. Mac is staying on next year and we believe there won't be a better striker in the Championship than him which gives us a great foothold and then we have Sully as well who once we get a pre-season under his belt are expecting big things from him as well.

"We still have more work to do but we will work really hard for a couple of weeks and we want to get our 17 or 18 finalised and ready to go here on the 26th of June.

"We will see what comes available from the likes of Linfield, Glentoran, Crusaders, Coleraine and teams like that to see if we can add real substance near the end of the window."

Redman is fresh off helping Ballymena United reach the Irish Cup final – the fourth of his career after also getting to two deciders with Portadown – and returns to the club he started his career with.

"The affiliation that Ross has with the club is what we're searching for,” added Currie. “We're searching for people not too far away from here who have an affiliation with the club.

"Obviously Ross has a history with the team breaking in so young and has went away for a few years and has had two or three exceptional seasons with Ballymena.

"We think at this stage of his career it's great to bring him home and he will get his last few years with us. He has this year and hopefully he will be able to help get us back into the Premier League.

"Hopefully in that second season we're going to give him a well-deserved testimonial and everybody will get behind that. His experience and quality, his ball delivery is second to none and the experience he will give us and the communication in the changing room - he's the perfect signing for us."