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The experienced Irish League boss – now in a second spell with hometown club Portadown having enjoyed sustained trophy success across his career – accepts being “branded with a style of play” but wants higher praise put on a group of players he views “outstanding and at their optimum” in last Friday’s Sports Direct Premiership win that marked a first over Linfield at Shamrock Park since February 2016. “The levels we achieved...everybody was talking about how bad a night Linfield had but I thought our players probably deserved a wee bit more credit, to be honest with you,” said Currie. "I thought there should have been a wee bit more talk about the players. "We got Linfield on a poor night, no doubt about it, but I thought we were very, very good. "I think that sometimes you get branded with a style of play. "On Friday night we played some great stuff. "Even last year we scored two probably in the running for ‘Goal of the Season’. "It’s probably my fault because I’ve branded with the "up and at ’em” thing for many years now. "But I think the players have shown we can play...there’s no doubt in my mind. "We can be very creative. “When we looked at our performance, our GPS stats and everything about Friday night (against Linfield) we had players who were outstanding and at their optimum. "Performance-wise...as good as it gets – against the level of quality of the league champions.” Having put into play a gameplan to defeat the best team in last season’s top flight, Portadown now welcome to town Coleraine as the best team in the current standings. Currie is embracing the challenge for a panel of players he ranks full of potential for continued progress this season thanks to growing numbers returning from the treatment table. "We know we have to be at our absolute best to compete against teams like Linfield and Coleraine,” he said. “Thankfully, we were at our very best against Linfield and we're going to need the same on Saturday. "There's good confidence and a good atmosphere about the place. "We’ve got to be at our very, very best and what we’ve tried to do over the last couple of years is make Shamrock Park a place no-one likes to visit.” Currie points to increased selection headaches as the perfect problem as manager. "We know that getting that (level against Linfield) every week is going to be very difficult,” he said. "But the other side of the coin is you’ve just got to try and get somewhere near that...so, even on a bad day, we pick points up. "People don’t really get it...we’ve been really hard hit with a lot of injuries. "We were reliant on 14, 15 players for a long period of time. "We know now we carry a big threat, we’ve weapons. “For us, the main focus is on our performance. "We’ll do sessions about the opposition but we try to absolutely 100 per cent focus on how good we can be and us being at our optimum. "When everyone’s available I’m fully believing that this is a very, very good squad.”
