Portadown manager Matthew Tipton has provided the following update for supporters regarding pre season, injuries and last nights training match against Glentoran:

With fans unable to attend last night I thought I’d give a brief update on the game & also a general catch up.

We took last nights game at late notice & whilst we wouldn’t normally play a team from the same league we felt that going to Glentoran would be a very worthwhile exercise due to them being a good bit ahead of us in terms of match sharpness due to their participation & winning Irish cup & then their European games.

The game was a great exercise for us & the players will have gained so much from it not only in terms of fitness but also the experience of going away from home against a top team. We had a few players missing last night for a variety of reasons.

Ben Pierce we decided not to fly him over at such late notice but that enabled Scott to get more valuable minutes under his belt.

Adam McCallum rolled his ankle during our in house game & it’s still swollen so we are monitoring that situation daily.

Luke Wilson & Barney McKeown both over stretched last week & tweaked their groins which is a disappointment as we pride ourselves on not getting muscle injuries but sometimes these things can’t be helped.

Adam Salley has had a niggle in his hamstring since we’ve come back which we’ve hopefully got to the bottom of now.

Ruairi Croskery has also rolled his ankle during training but he joined in on Monday night but we felt last night was probably too soon for him to play so we are now looking at how he comes through training on Thursday.

Aaron Burns has gone away for a couple of days so we will welcome him back tomorrow as well.

Callum McVeigh landed awkwardly on Saturday near the end of Comber Rec game & has swelling around his knee. On initial testing there doesn’t seem to be any ligament damage however, until the swelling & pain goes down Chris is unable to do full testing.

With all of that we managed to introduce two bright young talents into our squad last night in Zach Cowan (14) & Reece Jordan (15) & I was delighted to get them both on for a taste of this level of football & I was impressed with both of them in the manner they conducted themselves & also in what they contributed on the pitch.