Portadown finished 4-1 down to Coleraine at Shamrock Park – with a first-half penalty kick in added time offering the on-song Bannsiders a key breakthrough moment.

Will Patching slotted home the spot-kick and also fired in a fine second-half strike alongside Coleraine goals from Matthew Shevlin and Joel Cooper.

Portadown had James Teelan on target in the latter stages to cut the deficit against full-time Coleraine.

Here’s the verdict of Portadown boss Niall Currie:

placeholder image — James Teelan's late goal proved a consolation for Portadown in defeat by 4-1 at home to Coleraine. (Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press)

OVERALL PERFORMANCE...

"They (Coleraine) are a good side...and somebody told me they've four players missing!

"Our first-half performance was really good, our shape was really good.

"We frustrated them, exactly what we wanted to do.

"We looked at their previous four or five games and their stats are unbelievable possession-wise...you can see they keep the ball a lot, move the ball a lot.

"I thought we had them frustrated up until the stroke of half-time...the goal then was a real sickener.

"We've got to manage games better the first 20 minutes of the second half.

"If we can get these teams into the last 15 or 20 minutes of games at 1-0 then games can change very, very quickly.

"There's a lot of positives."

SMALL MARGINS...

"I think the goals were really avoidable.

"I'm not overly concerned about anything...it's not a case of white towels.

"We've got a good honest bunch of players so it's important everyone stays together.

"The first half the shape was fantastic...what we worked on for our period of time on Thursday night (training) worked really well.

"Ultimately, I'm just disappointed with the manner of goals.

"If Steven McCullough's free-kick goes in for 2-1 (down) suddenly everybody's lifted and it's go time.

"But, unfortunately, it didn't.

"You're going to have to be at your very, very best AND have a wee bit of luck on your side.

"We certainly didn't have any luck on our side today with regards to Jordan Gibson (offside) which I thought was very close and the two incidents that hit the frame (McCullough's free-kick and Rayhaan Tulloch late shot).

"We're getting 60s, we're getting 70s...we need to get 90 minutes now.

"Small things matter but I'm not down at all.

"We've got plenty in the tank to bounce back."

MOVING FORWARD...

"We've got to show that resilience from last season.

"But I can't look at too many games this season and feel let down...they've given their all.

"But we need a wee bit of that ruthlessness...we're still a very competitive side in the Premiership but we're missing three or four of our big, big hitters.

"We're missing that 'X factor' at the minute...but we've got to move on without a Shay McCartan, Rabby Minzamba and Josh Ukek.

"But they're three huge losses.

"We need to get through that wee period, get the boys back and have a full squad to choose from...but we still have enough to hurt teams and win football matches over the next period of time.

"We've had a really tough start to the season.

"But we're coming into a run of games now where we feel we can be really, really competitive....where we're expected and our supporters expect us to start delivering."