Paul Doolin promise to ‘give everything’ in Portadown battle against relegation

Doolin, who won the league-and-cup double in 1991, is back at Shamrock Park as boss charged with saving the club from the drop.

Saturday’s 14th defeat from 23 games led to the exit of Matthew Tipton as manager and Doolin accepts the task of turning around the Portadown fortunes remains formidable given one week left in the January transfer window and limited opportunities for points.

But he is determined to ‘give the club everything for as long as I’m here’.

“The objective is to stay in the Premiership and all options are on the table,” said Doolin, who was watching Tuesday’s league game with Crusaders ahead of a first match in charge on Saturday at Larne. “Hopefully a fresh voice can give the players a jolt and gain a reaction.

“Training’s so important and anything I’ve achieved in my career has been through coaching players.

“You are not going to do something dramatic - but there’s no hiding from the fact we are losing games and looking for results.

“There are certain things we can work on pretty quickly.

“I’m sure there are some talented players here and maybe confidence might be down because of results.

“We will be looking at the possibility of signing players but you’ve also got to be careful.

“I don’t think there’s much point in signing someone for the sake of it...if something did come up that might be worth it, then that’s different.

“I was delighted once I got the call and understand it’s going to be tough.

“It doesn’t matter if you are trying to win trophies or avoid relegation, it starts with clean sheets and getting it right at the back.”

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