Saturday 17th August
Kick Off 3.00pm
Old rivalries and friendships will be renewed on Saturday as we visit Shamrock Park for our first league game there since November 2022.
Both sides go into this one looking for their first Sports Direct Premiership points as like ourselves the Ports suffered a 1-0 loss in their season opener, with a Ryan Curran goal separating the teams at Solitude last Sunday.
In a throwback to the 1990s, there are no fewer than eight former Glens players in the current Portadown squad. In addition to Aaron McCarey and Shay McCartan who departed the Bet McLean Oval at the end of last season, the Ports also signed Stephen McCullough from Ballymena United and Jamie McDonagh from Cliftonville. Already at the club were Ross Redman, Eoghan McCawl, Lee Chapman and Jack Henderson. In a typically active transfer window Niall Currie has also brought in a number of new players including striker Cahair Friel from Coleraine and this week brought in winger Josh Ukek from Welsh side Bala Town and midfielder Ben Wylie from Cliftonville.
That 2022 league meeting at Shamrock resulted in a 2-0 win with goals from Sean Murray and Bobby Burns, while the following month we had a 3-0 win there in the Irish Cup with a double from Jay Donnelly and one from Niall McGinn.
Declan Devine: “Last week we were all disappointed with our performance as we didn’t play to the levels we know we can. It was a difficult game against a good Crusaders side and although there was very little in it I felt we were the architects of our own downfall with the nature of the winning goal. I know it was a poor performance and none of us shy away from that, but we all know we’re capable of much more and all our focus is on delivering that this weekend. We put in a nervous performance but with players in this squad with the Irish League experience of James Singleton, Marcus Kane, Patrick McClean, Fuad Sule and Josh Kelly we have the ability to move on from that and make sure it doesn’t get repeated.
We have a good squad at the minute with a good mix of experienced and younger players, but we’re still working very hard to bring in another few of the right kind of players for the season. But we are still a bit light in a few positions and that is being addressed. We know the players and the quality and attitude we need and I won’t be diverted from that.
For Saturday we have Fuad Sule back available and both Marcus and Johnny Russell joined in training this week so we’re hopeful of having them available. Moko’s influence and standing around this club is immense and I’m delighted we managed to keep him here. I’m really disappointed at Aaron Wightman’s luck with injuries as he’s a player I’m expecting really big things from.
Portadown have recruited well and I can remember from my time here as a player some great matches with them at Shamrock. So we’re all looking forward to a tough game and we’re going into it very positively.”
