POST-MATCH VIEW: 'You're not talking your Average Joe Bloggs' - Niall Currie's Portadown frustration after draw
Eamon Fyfe handed Portadown control against Bangor with a fine first-half finish but Ben Arthurs left it level after the interval during Saturday’s hard-fought 1-1 draw at Shamrock Park.
Here’s the verdict of Portadown manager Niall Currie:
OVERALL PERFORMANCE…
"We were disappointed we didn't get three points today...I thought we should have.
"Small things matter in football and the chances we had in the first half, you should be coming in at least two up.
"I don't think they troubled us really in the first half, that's the frustration.
"I thought we created the best opportunities in the first half, we should have been coming in a couple up (but) we went to sleep for a couple of minutes in the second half (for Bangor’s equaliser).
"I can't criticise the endeavour.
"The performance today you could see that was a team that gave everything, fully behind everything we're trying to do here.
"The bottom line is I thought we deserved to win the game.
"You take your point and you move on.
"I'm not too down about it...I thought we were decent in a lot of the game today.
"Again, the main thing for me is am I getting every effort from the players? I certainly am.
"The players emptied the tank, they're hugely disappointed not to get three points."
INJURY ISSUES...
"It's been really difficult, the run of absentees that we have had has been huge, I mean huge.
"You're not talking your Average Joe Bloggs.
"You're talking about big hitters.
"I’ve injuries many times in my career but I think there was one period there with nine first-team players injured, at times maybe 12 or 13 training.
"So it's been hard, there's no doubt about it.
"I've never been a manager who goes for excuses, I don't make excuses...but our run of injuries has been horrendous.
"You're talking about six or seven of your big, big hitters being out for periods.
“We all think we should have had three points but there's some positives today...Josh Ukek getting on the pitch for the first time in three months.”
SECOND HALF...
“It just kind of petered out...there was no real quality in the last third of the pitch.
"I think after you've come in and missed chances then you concede two minutes into the second half, there's a wee bit of protection (in a player’s mind), a mental thing.
"Certainly not coming from the sidelines but a player might want to settle things down and just make sure there's nothing else given away.
“They didn't threaten us and we didn't really threaten them (in the second half.
"We had a couple of wee opportunities...ultimately, you've got to be careful too you don't throw caution to the wind and end up getting a sucker punch because we wouldn't have deserved to lose.
"We always encourage them to make sure we shut the back door and to concede so early in the second half has hurt us.
"But I have no complaints with the players today, I can say they gave me every drop and I thought we deserved to win the game.
"It wasn't to be, but we'll have our times ahead.”