Portadown captain looking to use derby victory as springboard for further Championship success after difficult start

Niall Currie’s side remain favourites to book an immediate return to the top-flight after signing an array of Premiership calibre players during the summer, but surprisingly sit eighth heading into Saturday’s trip to basement boys Knockbreda following defeats to Ballyclare Comrades, Bangor and H&W Welders.

They halted that slump at Shamrock Park last Saturday with star striker Paul McElroy netting a hat-trick in their 4-2 triumph against neighbours Annagh and Thompson, who has been named club captain while Paddy McNally takes an indefinite break from football for family reasons, wants to start looking up the table.

"It was always going to be a tough start,” he said. “I think realistically you can't turn over that amount of players who don't know each other and expect everything to click straight away.

"You can see Niall's experience where it wasn't panic and we knew it was going to take a bit of time to get used to people on and off the pitch and to build those relationships.

"You hope that during that period you can chip away at results so more importantly on Saturday the performance was a lot better and it's going to give us confidence.

"Credit to Ballyclare, Bangor and the Welders - they all played well and deserved their wins, so there are no excuses.

“There are lots of good sides in this league and it's going to be difficult moving forward.”

The Ports squad have had to deal with outside pressure and expectation but that is nothing compared to what they put on themselves to perform on a weekly basis.

"The outside noise is what it is - it's always going to be there when you play for a big club,” he added. “It's the pressure you put on yourself.

"Losing games of football isn't fun so you just have to get back to working hard.

"We stuck together through what was a tough few weeks and came out with a good result on Saturday.

"It'll mean nothing if we don't back it up with another win this weekend."

Having enjoyed top-flight spells with Lisburn Distillery, Ballymena United and Crusaders, Thompson’s summer move into the Championship marked the first time he has played in the division since a brief loan spell at Larne from Linfield as a teenager in 2007.

"Nothing has surprised me but I've been impressed with the quality,” he said. “Going to the Welders, they were full of players who have played in the Premiership or having been at Crusaders there were young lads like Lewis Patterson and Lewis Barr who were knocking around the Crues at youth level.

"Looking at Knockbreda this weekend, they've a couple of young lads who were in the Crusaders U20s that won the league this past couple of years.

"It's a league full of talent. I was impressed with Bangor and the big lad (Ben) Arthurs up front.

"There are players who could easily play Premiership football. You only have to look at Knockbreda beating Ballymena (in the County Antrim Shield)."

That shock victory over Jim Ervin’s Sky Blues is Knockbreda’s only triumph of the season with Colin McIlwraith’s side sitting point-less at the bottom of the Championship table.

Thompson isn’t taking anything for granted and has been around Irish League football long enough to know what happens if you take your eye off the ball.

"We've all been about the game long enough to see results like Knockbreda beating Ballymena and then Ballymena beat Carrick last weekend,” he said. “There is no reason to be getting ahead of ourselves.

"We know if we don't perform then we won't be picking up results."