"We never laid a glove on them": Portadown boss Niall Currie fumes at his side's performance in loss at Coleraine

The Ports were second best for the whole 90 minutes on the Ballycastle Road as goals from Ronan Doherty and Jamie Glackin gave the hosts a comfortable success.

The best opportunity Currie's men could muster was Shay McCartan's first-half free-kick that trickled inches wide as they lost for the second week running.

A win would have extended their advantage over Coleraine to seven points but it has now been cut to one, with Currie believing it was a big opportunity missed by his players to put breathing space between them and the Bannsiders as the fight for the top-six continues.

"I thought the last 25 minutes...actually I don't have the words for it. I'm hugely disappointed," he fumed.

"This is football and we are on the back of three or four really good performances and we didn't turn up today.

"You can give Coleraine all the plaudits of the day, of course, as they deserved their victory but we never laid a glove on them.

"The last 15 or 20 minutes of that game was unacceptable. Our supporters came up here and paid into the game and I know that feeling as I've done it plenty of times.

"Did we give them anything to shout about today? No, nothing.

"We gave them nothing so far as I'm concerned, it's a huge apology from us."

When asked about where the lacklustre performance came from, Currie was left at a loss but vowed that they can ill-afford to do it again.

He stressed: "I didn't see that coming today.

"I don't ever hang my players out to dry...but sometimes you have to call it how you see it.

"We were extremely, extremely disappointing today but it was the manner of it.

"Listen you lose games of football...but did we go out on anything today? No.

"We went out with a whimper and that's the frustrating and disappointing thing for me.

"I know I'm disappointed but we will get over it and move on.

"We can't be registering a performance like that again.

"The last 25 minutes looked like an end-of-season game that we had nothing to play for - but there was plenty to play for.

"It was a disappointing day for me, the club and the supporters.”

Whilst being angry at the performance and the result, Currie says he has been proud at how his side have coped on their return to the top-flight.

The Ports face lowly Carrick Rangers at home next weekend as they aim to get back to winning ways.

"They've been magnificent all season. It's been a wonderful season and we didn't think we'd be sitting on 42 points at this stage,” Currie continued.

"I think, as promoted clubs usually are, favourites to get relegated but we're rebuilt a whole squad and it's been an unbelievable achievement to get to 42 points.

"But you can't rest on your laurels and you have to be hungry.

"The best players are ruthless and I'd like to see much more ruthlessness in terms of making sure we finish the way we deserve to finish it.

"You only get if you cross that line but we didn't today and we never laid a glove on Coleraine.”