WHAT THE MANAGER SAID: 'Overlooked' Portadown to keep fighting plus news promised on 'shining light'

Derby delight arrived at home to Loughgall by 3-1 on Saturday thanks to goals from James Teelan, Josh Ukek and Ben Wylie – with Ryan Waide the visitors’ scorer in a defeat which cemented relegation.

Here’s the post-match verdict from Portadown assistant manager Clifford Adams:

OVERALL PERFORMANCE...

"All we wanted was a reaction after last week (4-1 loss to Carrick)...we were all so disappointed.

"The only shining light we had (at Carrick) was Damian Traczykowski, he's only 17 but came on like he played senior football all his days.

"There will be some news coming out of the club about him this week.

"We're very pleased with the performance today, it's three points and we'll just see where it takes us.

"I thought we dominated the majority of the play in the first half and should've been a couple of goals to the good.

"Eamon Fyfe forced a great save then young James Teelan probably could've gone himself I thought but squared it to Eamon (for a second chance).

"Credit to both teams playing on the pitch and, fair play, both tried.

"Our cry at half-time was we believe we're in control but thought we were in third gear.

"We need to get more shots off, we need to create more chances and take more men on...which is something we haven't been doing as much as in the first half of the season.

"We're very disappointed with the goal we conceded so soon after scoring, we're absolutely gutted about that and not going to mask it."

INJURY IMPACT...

"People rarely mention when it comes to Portadown the injuries we have...we'd three-quarters of the team not playing today.

"Dougie Wilson, Ryan Mayse, Gary Thompson, Lewis MacKinnon, Baris Altintop, Luke Wilson...we're missing six or seven and out of that list maybe five starters every week.

"It's hard to keep the level going and that's probably been killing us the past few weeks.

"Paul McElroy came in today and hasn't played a massive amount of minutes bar coming off the bench but I thought he did well for the first goal.

"He tired a wee bit but you can only expect that.

"I think our players have had a top-drawer season compared to where everybody at the start thought we would be, so deserve massive credit.

"We looked knackered last week (v Carrick) and have tried to manage that so today we'd a few kids on the bench 17 or under.

"You can't have so many players out of a team and expect them to be consistent."

SEASON'S PROGRESS...

"I think at times Niall (Currie, manager) doesn't get the credit he deserves.

"For what he's done - what we've all done - he seems to just get overlooked at times.

"Everybody around the club has done a fantastic job this season, it is tough, there's so much work to get done when moving between a Championship team to a Premiership team.”

SEVENTH SPOT...

"There's 100 per cent that motivation to try and get seventh, otherwise what's the point in all of the work done beforehand?

"We play Cliftonville here and we'll try our best to take it into the last game.

"It's an uphill task, no-one's stupid with two games to go but we want something to play for in the final week.

"Everybody's disappointed with what's happened over the last month-and-a-half.

"We still have motivation, we don't want to drop down the table, we want to finish as high as we can."

FUTURE...

"We're very thankful we've a Board here that works its socks off to try and get us the best players we can.

"They could've been happy to accept we're safe now but they wanted to fight all the way.

"Something that's been damaged for long isn't going to be rebuilt overnight and something that's built fast rarely lasts.

"For us it's a bit slow and steady but we just want to keep building every year."