'They are going to have a big impact' - Niall Currie confident pair of summer signings will make their mark at Portadown and reflects on transfer business
Having scored his first Portadown goal since joining this summer in Friday’s 2-2 Premiership draw with league leaders Linfield, Niall Currie remains confident Ahu Obhakhan is “going to have a big impact” in the Irish League.
The 27-year-old signed from Glebe North last month and has also previously been on the books of Shelbourne, Institute and Drogheda United alongside spells in America and Spain.
He was in the right place to slot home from Steven McCullough’s pinpoint cross as the Ports cancelled out Matthew Fitzpatrick’s early strike before Ryan Mayse’s last-gasp goal earned the County Armagh outfit a point.
In what was just his second Premiership start, Obhakhan impressed under the lights at Shamrock Park and Currie believes there’s more to come from both the striker and Josh Ukek, who made a third consecutive appearance after joining from Bala Town.
"I’m delighted for him – I thought his performance was outstanding,” he said. “He’s a number nine that I think every club needs.
"I look at Fitzpatrick for Linfield and I know he hasn’t been knocking a lot of goals in, but I just think he’s a quality player – he links up play brilliantly and is a consistent threat.
"Ahu might finish the season with eight or nine goals but it’s the rest of his game that we need and what you seen tonight is a young man who ran himself to a standstill.
"You can only praise his efforts and that’s the bottom line. You have to praise him – he was outstanding, a wonderful focal point, able to run in behind, able to harass them.
"Ukek is going to get better too...these two guys didn’t have a pre-season and are weeks behind everybody else, but they’re talented and honest, and that’ll do me.
"I’ve seen enough from both players to know they are going to have a big impact at this club and that’s what we need.”
Having sealed Premiership promotion last season, it was always going to be a busy summer for Currie as he looked to build a squad which could help establish Portadown in the top-flight and he ultimately brought in 14 players – Aaron McCarey, Shay McCartan, Jamie McDonagh, Lewis MacKinnon, Cathair Friel, Jack Duncan, Jamie Ray, Eamon Fyfe, Ben Wylie, Baris Altintop and Liam Mullan alongside the aforementioned Obhakhan, Ukek and McCullough.
Ten of them were involved in Friday’s draw – eight from the start and two off the bench – and Currie is pleased with the business conducted.
"I think I’m happy – if I signed anybody else the board would have been calling me in for a meeting!” he laughed. “A huge thanks to Larne for getting big Baris in – I thought he was super and had a really strong debut.
"Lewis MacKinnon was outstanding, our full-backs were excellent – we were decent all over the pitch and we worked our socks off.
"I don’t care what anybody says, for me as manager it’s about bringing the right quality to the club, but you can’t ever go wrong with honest players and we have to make sure we have that honesty all season.
"The word is resilience – when you get that kick in the teeth against Glentoran we turned around and put in a really good performance against Loughgall and got a fully deserved point. Tonight we’ve went again and that really pleases me. The boys are definitely buying into what we’re trying to do here.”