Niall Currie 'perfect man' for Portadown says Higgins

Coleraine head coach Ruaidhri Higgins has praised the work of Portadown counterpart Niall Currie ahead of Saturday's meeting of the two teams at Shamrock Park.

The Ports have won three of their last four, including a famous 2-0 win over champions Linfield eight days ago, and could move into the top six with victory over their visitors today.

And all this despite Currie coming under fire earlier in the campaign and losing some of his backroom staff in the lead-up to the game against Linfield.

"They completely deserved their three points last week. I thought they were excellent," said Higgins.

"And the bit that frustrates me about football, generally, is a couple of weeks ago there was a bit of discontent at Portadown with Niall Currie.

"You hear silly things like he's under a bit of pressure which baffles me because he gets promoted, then they have a brilliant mid-table finish last year and now they're sitting in a decent position again.

"It's one of them ones: people need to be careful what they wish for because the job he's done there is exceptional.

"And then, added to the fact last week, he lost his coaching staff in the lead-up to the Linfield game. So it was basically all on him in the lead-up to the Linfield game and they go and get a result like that.

"I don't think people around Portadown need any more clarification that he's the perfect man for that football club," he added.

Coleraine defeated Portadown at Shamrock Park just over a month ago but, since then, the Ports have found form and will present difficult opposition this weekend.

"When you look at the attacking options they have - Wiley, Tulloch, Fife, Teelen - they have real energy, a real counter-attacking threat. I thought the four of them were excellent last week and we're going to have to defend counter-attacks well," said the Bannsiders boss.

"We're going to have to defend one v one situations well and then stamp our own authority on the game but, yeah, those players, that front three that they have, are very, very dangerous.

"We've been good by and large on the road - we've lost one and won the rest. I don't know what it is at the minute, we seem to be away from home a lot.

"But what I would say is that there's a really good atmosphere in the group and they all seem to be buying into each other."

Coleraine may include recently recruited goalkeeper Lewis Webb in the travelling party as they look to maintain their place at the top of the Sports Direct Premiership.

Elsewhere, the matchday squad is expected to be along similar lines to that which featured in last weekend's 4-0 home win over Dungannon Swifts.