POST-MATCH VERDICT: Oran Kearney credits 'mentality' of his Ballymena United players after earning home win against Portadown

Here’s what he had to say after the full-time whistle at the Ballymena Showgrounds.

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“My big driver is performance and the levels of where we're getting to.

"Even when I look at the previous week, in the previous couple of games, where we're out of the two games with two points out of six, when we've probably done more than enough here against Carrick and have a big decision that goes against us earlier in the game, and then we get the opposite of that decision last Saturday, which kills us when we're absolutely flying and we were in a really good place.

"So, frustrating from that point of view, but we can't keep getting away from the fact that performance-wise, we're happy with how things have gone.

"We've a lot of new players, it is taking a bit of time and, again, I think you see a bit of that today.

"But for me, the most pleasing aspect was more the mentality today.

"They obviously came with a game plan, with where they're at, and there were a lot of defenders in the pitch, and sat very, very deep, and rightfully so, they're entitled to do that.

"It troubled us and I suppose the onus was on us to come and try and break it down, and for big parts of it, we struggled to unlock the door, and fair play to Portadown from that perspective,

"I think in moments like that, you need those bits of star quality, and Finley, for me, is definitely that.

ALWAYS LOOKED LIKE A PIECE OF MAGIC WAS NEEDED TO MAKE THE BREAKTHROUGH, WHICH ARRIVED FROM THORNDIKE:

“He's bright and he's been brilliant since he's come in.

"He's got a real refreshing attitude, and maybe misunderstood in a way, where he would be labelled as maybe lazy or stuff like that, but you don't see it, and with a wee bit of encouragement and an arm around the shoulder, we definitely feel as if, so far, we're getting the best out of him.

"We feel that there's loads of so many good qualities when we've got the ball, and it's just making sure he can look after those other bits when we don't.

"But in those moments of stress, him and Caoimhin (McConnell), I think it was a wee backheel to free Finley up for the goal, and then even the second goal, I think it was five or six really good passes and really good movement that freed up Igor (Rutkowski) off the side for a great finish as well.

"I suppose that's probably that wee release of when the goals go in, it's like anything, it brings that wee bit of freedom to players.

REFLECTIONS ON START TO THE SEASON:

"It’s like anything, it's men's football, it's a performance league, and you've got to win games, and we all know that.

"There's all the usual bits and pieces from the outside, but for us on the inside, actually, we know where we're at, we know where we need to get to, and we know, again, that these things take a little bit of time.

"As I say, if you go and watch closely our games of recent times, we've been really strong in our performances, and probably quite unfortunate in relation to a few decisions and bits and pieces that have gone against us.

"I keep driving, if we keep performing at sooner or later, what happens, what we see out there every night in training, which is brilliant, will all of a sudden start to come out here, and week by week, we're starting to see that.