WHAT THE MANAGER SAID: Niall Currie's post-match view on Portadown defeat to Glentoran
Portadown lost to Glentoran by 2-1 as Jordan Jenkins broke the deadlock before a Ryan Mayse equaliser – only for substitute Niall McGinn to fire home via a deflection in injury-time.
Here’s the post-match verdict of Portadown boss Niall Currie:
LAST-GASP DEFEAT...
"That's a sickener...a couple of switch-off moments.
"I think the first goal, I don't want to sound old school but you take your yellow card.
"It was too easy for them."
He added: "I thought whenever they scored the second goal we were in the ascendancy.
"We switch off for a second off the throw-in and then turn our backs for the shot when sometimes you need to take the hit in the face."
PERFORMANCE LEVEL...
"As the game went on we grew into it and in team talks the big word at the minute is resilience.
"We're going to have to be resilient this season...we have to dust ourselves down because the performance level was there, the effort levels were there, the shape was good.
"We get 90 minutes on a Tuesday and the same on a Thursday but playing teams never off the training pitch working on shape, patterns of play and set-pieces.
"I thought we matched them in every department but, ultimately, it's about points on the board.
"I felt we were very unlucky not to get any points today and if you'd said to me at the start of the season we'd put in two performances like that (v Cliftonville and Glentoran) I'd be very happy.
"I'm a great believer in you get your rewards for what you put in...if staying at that level of performance.
"We won a lot of duels, a lot of second balls."
He added: "We've worked really hard in pre-season and our fitness levels have been good."
RESPONSE...
"I've told the players we need to put things behind us very, very quickly.
"Get your heads down and get back on the train the sooner the better."
He added: "We know there are going to be difficult days but, to a certain extent, there's nothing to fear.
"A lot of people maybe thought Glentoran would come here and have a comfortable afternoon and I'm sure they would admit it was far from comfortable.
"We want to be that team in this league and to get to where we need to get going...to stabilise this club in this league for many years to come.
"We've got to be that team no-one wants to play against and I think if you talk to Declan (Devine, Glentoran manager) today and Jim (Magilton, Cliftonville manager) they would say that's the case.
SQUAD STRENGTH...
"Today we showed what we didn't against Cliftonville...a wee threat.
"I thought Ukek (Josh) was superb in the first half but went out of the game as he hasn't played a lot of football and Ahu (Obhakhan) looks like a great focal-point striker but hasn't had a pre-season or played any football in over a month.
"We threw those two guys in with very little football under their belts so they're only going to get better and, when fully up and running, great assets.
"We're running with a big squad but you'll see outgoings as it's not a budget situation, it's a numbers situation at the minute.
"So we'll try to trim down but if you go with the nucleus of what we've seen there are a number of positives."