The majority of predictors prior to this Premiership season had Portadown as a favourite to struggle. A team who survived courtesy only of emerging on the right side of the relegation/promotion play-off last term, while Paul Doolin was widely lauded for securing that two-legged success over local rivals Annagh United in May, it is fair to say that optimism was not flowing for all the plaudits the Dubliner received at a club he also served as a player.
That said, it was not foreseen that they would sit on just a solitary point after 12 matches. For 11 of those, Doolin steered the ship, however following a 4-0 defeat to Crusaders at Seaview on the 22nd October, he left his post to make the Ports the first top-tier club to change their manager this season. No sooner had the Shamrock Park side seen their incumbent leave than they had hired a familiar name to be his successor – Niall Currie.
Returning for a second stint with the red-shirted outfit, Currie re-joined having done some inspirational work in the interluding time.
The 50-year-old was firstly with Portadown for 14 months between December 2016 and February 2018. He joined mid-way through a campaign that would end in relegation, finishing bottom of the top-tier table on 13 points – but that does not tell the whole story.
He was appointed by a team that had been handed a 12-point deduction before the season started due to a registration error regarding player Peter McMahon.
Bear in mind this was also a side in transition, given Ronnie McFall’s infamous tenure at the Ports had ended the previous campaign. McFall stood down before the 2015/16 season was out, having served almost 30 continuous years in the club’s dugout – the second-longest successive post-war reign in world football behind only Auxerre great Guy Roux.
Pat McGibbon took over from the four-time Gibson Cup winner, with the club also hit by a £5,000 fine (halved from £10,000 on appeal) and a ban on signing professional contracts for a year in the off-season.
When McGibbon resigned in October 2016, more than a month had elapsed before Currie was unveiled to take the reins. While he could not save the club from the drop-zone, the points deduction had played its part, given they would have been good for the play-off had that not been at play. It was a saving grace for Carrick Rangers at least, who were the team to end up in that spot.
The following season, in the second-tier, Currie could not take them back up at the first ask and the call was made to part ways. The circumstances may not have been favourable, but as a side rich in history and heritage – they are still the last non-Belfast club to win the title, doing so under McFall in 2002 – expectations were, it was felt, not being met.
Since then, the last two jobs the former Bangor and Glenavon goalkeeper took up have highlighted how good a coach he is.
Carrick’s reprieve was brief. While they bested Institute in the play-off to stay up in 2017, when they finished 11th-place again the following year, Newry City did not let them off the hook.
Darren Mullen’s men defeated the Amber Army home and away, and achieved a step-up at their opponents’ expense by a 6-3 aggregate scoreline.
When the east Antrim unit’s drop-down was confirmed, that is where Currie came in. He wasted no time in making his stamp when he was announced as David McAlinden’s successor.
In 2018/19, not one but two of his by-now-former sides came under his scalp. Carrick ended in 2nd-place, and back when the teams second and third had a play-in to determine who would face the 11th team in the top-tier, Currie oversaw his new team’s defeat of Portadown to achieve the right to play Ards.
A side where he is still highly respected for what he achieved in five years at Clandeboye Park between 2011 and 2016, having achieved promotion to the top-flight in 2013, the orange-shirted men from Taylors Avenue bested their red-and-blue-shirted adversaries home and away to join their well-backed main regional rivals Larne in the top-tier.
Currie kept them up in each of the following two campaigns, before surprisingly departing at the end of the 2020/21 season. Stuart King, while on paper a left-field hire having made the step-up from third-tier Banbridge Town, has taken the club to new strengths having built on foundations his predecessor had laid.
Following that, he took on a different type of task. Just over a year ago, Currie was named boss of east Belfast team Dundela, who had picked up one point in their first eight matches at the time of his appointment. Not exactly a dissimilar situation to where he finds himself now on his return to Shamrock Park.
Rooted to the bottom of the Championship when he arrived and at early risk of a Premier Intermediate League drop-down, he decisively stabilised the side and secured their safety in 8th-position before embarking on an excellent start to the 2022/23 campaign.
Eliminations of top-tier clubs Crusaders in the League Cup and Carrick – by an emphatic 1-4 scoreline as the away team no less – in the County Antrim Shield, plus a narrow loss to Linfield at their home Wilgar Park venue in the former competition and a last-four date in the latter with three-peat-chasing Larne coming up.
In a 12-month span, Currie – who also counts current Championship league-leaders Loughgall among his previous employers – helped turn the Duns from relegation fodder to promotion contenders. From one point in eight, they had 21 in 11 and were in serious contention at the top.
But, despite the green-shirted capital club being in the top three, when the Ports came calling, Currie felt he had to answer having left Dundela in a much better place than where he found them.
Confirmation came in double-quick time. A fast-paced process, it felt like it was practically overnight as he took the touchline at the Coleraine Showgrounds in his top-tier return. It was not to be a grandstand start, however, given the Bannsiders were 4-0 victors, while their opponents remain without a win at November’s start.
In their first dozen league fixtures, Portadown have scored only four goals and conceded 30. An unwanted league-low and joint-league-high respectively, with a 1-1 draw against eternal rivals Glenavon their sole aversion of defeat.
A couple of goals by Jordan Jenkins, plus one apiece from Oisin Conaty – as a matter of fact, the only goalscorer to actually salvage something points-wise to date – and Dominican Republic international Alberto Baldé, account for their finishes in league play. It is one of the youngest squads in the division who are having a hard time putting the ball in the net.
Fundamentally, though, they remain just three points from the play-off. A similarly abject start by Dean Shiels’ Dungannon Swifts means only three points separate the Tyrone team and the Ports. Indeed, their sole Premiership win of the season was at the basement side’s expense in September, with only four points on the board and a brutal run of fixtures on the immediate horizon.
Currie’s track record of getting supporters and players onside is hard to fault. He will be able to motivate those at his disposal and generate backing for his ideas and philosophies. Results can realistically be expected to improve under his watch. Discount him at your peril.
Featured image from Presseye, via belfastlive.co.uk.
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