Portadown supremo Niall Currie is happy to let the good times roll as he looks towards a “huge clash” with fellow high-flyers Ballymena United this afternoon at Shamrock Park in the Sports Direct Irish Premiership.
With almost a quarter of the season now in the rearview mirror, many would have viewed today’s matchup as a potential relegation scrap in the making, however football is indeed a funny old game and instead both sides can see the bright lights of a top six finish on the horizon.
Jim Ervin’s United have now won five games on the bounce after a miserable four-game losing streak to start the campaign.
Last week’s thrilling 3-2 victory over Cliftonville moved them into second position in the standings, leaving last season’s scrape with demotion a distant memory for fans and players alike.
Football is a team sport, but it would be foolish to disregard the individual impact that new arrival Ben Kennedy has had on the Sky Blues’ rich vein of form.
With nine goals in nine games, the former Crues’ man is doing much of the heavy lifting, ably assisted of course by a hard-working 11 that is reflective of their manager’s performances as a player himself at the Showgrounds.
Not to be outdone, Currie has his own goalscoring supremo in Ryan Mayse.
He is second to Kennedy in the scoring charts with five of his own, including an early strike in his team’s shining 3-0 win at Seaview over a disappointing Crusaders last Saturday.
The Ports are now unbeaten in six games and lie in seventh, but a win today would leave them level on points with United. Manager Currie is looking forward to this clash but is not surprised with the form of his rivals.
“I’m not surprised by Ballymena, Jim has done really well,” he said.
“He has brought in a lot of players over the summer, but importantly very, very good players and has been well backed by the board there.
“He has brought in real quality, but it takes time too. Those first couple of games it’s difficult to throw in a lot of new players, a bit like ourselves, so we know how difficult it is to put faces together,” he continued.
“The club has signed top end players, and you are seeing the results of that now.
“But we will always focus on ourselves. The bottom line is that we want our players to be at our best, and if we are operating at our best, we will be competitive with anybody and competitive with Ballymena as well.”
Currie has managed to make Shamrock Park a bit of a fortress of late, managing to defeat Dungannon Swifts and draw with both Linfield and Coleraine.
In both the drawn fixtures mentioned the Ports relied on equalisers deep into injury-time, but last weekend’s commanding win over the Crues showed that they can boss a game if required.
“I think we have got some good footballers at the club, but we also have some diggers,” Currie explained.
“We have some imposing centre-backs that are quick, some great midfield engines and the likes of Shay McCartan who have that bit of class.
“We have the talents to dig in if needed and also to play good football when required, and that pleases me, so whatever we need come Saturday I’m confident we will have that available within the squad.”
The last time the sides met at Shamrock Park was in 2023, when the Ports ran out 1-0 victors and you must go back to 2021 for the last time United ran out winners. However, all bets are off today as this one looks set to go down to the wire.
