Irish Premiership: Portadown v Dungannon Swifts (Friday, Shamrock Park, 7.45pm)
DUNGANNON Swifts will swap places with Newry City and move out of the relegation zone with victory over basement outfit Portadown at Shamrock Park on Friday night.
Newry’s poor run of results – they’ve lost their last three – including a 2-0 reverse against Dungannon last Friday night means Darren Mullen’s side are facing the prospect of dropping into the relegation play-off spot.
The hope for Newry is that bottom of the table Portadown have found some form and can double down on the 3-1 win (only their second victory of the season) against Glenavon last Saturday.
“It’s a big game and we have a chance to put a bit of distance between ourselves and Portadown,” said Dungannon manager Dean Shiels.
“There’s 11 points in at the minute and if we can get that to 14 it would be a big help and obviously three points would get us ahead of Newry and get us looking up the table.
“No-one wants to go into that relegation play-off at the end of the season – a red card or a decision can go against you in a game like that and that can dictate your fate. So we want to use the momentum of last week’s win (at the Showgrounds) to push on.”
The 2-0 win in Newry was the third game in six gruelling days for Shiels’s side. Before the trip to county Down, the Swifts had gone down 3-0 to Carrick and top of the table Larne.
“It was a tough run of fixtures,” said Shiels.
“But we’ve beaten Newry and now we have Portadown and then Carrick to come and they’re the games we want to pick up points in.”
@DgnSwifts took a big step towards Premiership safety as they moved level on points with @NewryCityAFC after their win at the Showgrounds on Friday evening.#DanskeBankPrem pic.twitter.com/Hr9OiDZxOc
— NI Football League (@OfficialNIFL) February 18, 2023
Opponents Portadown have been rooted to the bottom of the table throughout this season but, if they’re going down, they’re not going to do so quietly.
Manager Niall Currie brought in Aaron Canning, Cathair Friel, Chris Rodgers, Lee Chapman and Eoghan McCawl during the January transfer window and four of them played their part in last weekend’s 3-1 win against near neighbours Glenavon.
“Portadown were very ambitious in the market in January in the way they’ve brought in players and I applaud them for that,” said Shiels.
“They want to get themselves off the bottom spot and they’ll be hoping to use that win last Saturday to find some momentum. We’ll be hoping to do the same thing.”
The sides have already met three times this season. Dungannon won league (2-0) and league cup (2-1) clashes at Stangmore Park and drew 0-0 when they visited Portadown on January 2.
“We’ve done well against them this season so far,” said Shiels.
“But that’ll count for nothing tomorrow night because we know it’s a big occasion and whoever turns up will dictate who comes out on top.”
Shiels will be without centre-half Caolan Marron for the relegation ‘six-pointer’ and Darragh McBrien is ruled out with a long-term injury. James Knowles could play some part however.
“Caolan and Darragh would start on any team in the league,” said Shiels.
“To go without them is very difficult. The three games in six days’ was tough on us and we’re trying to get the lads patched-up and get ready. We’ll go with what we have and we’ll be looking to give a good account of ourselves.”
