Recruitment key to Glentoran's good start - Devine

Jordan Stewart is one of a number of Declan Devine's summer signings that has impressed in Glentoran's good start to the season

Irish Premiership: Glentoran v Portadown

Date: Friday, 31 October Kick-off: 19:45 GMT Venue: The Oval

Coverage: Live stream on BBC iPlayer & the BBC Sport app and website

Glentoran boss Declan Devine says adding "serious quality" in the summer transfer window has helped his side enjoy a good start to the season.

The Glens sit second in the Irish Premiership table, three points behind leaders Coleraine with two games in hand before Friday night's game against Portadown, which will be shown live on BBC iPlayer.

Players brought in during the summer such as Pat Hoban, Jordan Stewart and Ryan Cooney have all impressed this season and on Thursday the club added former Everton goalkeeper Billy Crellin on a deal for the remainder of the campaign.

Devine believes the new recruits have raised standards as the club chase a first league title since 2009.

"It takes you a couple of transfer windows to get the squad you really want, and we were able to add serious quality in the last window with Liam Burt, Pat Hoban, Daniel Larmour, Jordan Stewart and Ryan Cooney - big players," he told BBC Sport NI's Nicola McCarthy.

"The recruitment has been key, and a lot of those players have been serial winners in their career, so having that influx of people that have been there and done it has really helped the environment and given us a depth of quality."

'There's nothing handed out this side of Christmas'

Glentoran beat Portadown 1-0 when the two sides met on the opening day of the season at Shamrock Park

Glentoran have lost just one of their 11 league games so far this campaign, and while Devine is pleased with the application of his players, he says it is "still early days" in the title race.

"We have to continue to strive to get better. There is serious competition for places and even trying to pick a subs bench at times is very difficult because there are so many quality players at the moment," he added.

"That is testament to the players too, because if one steps out there is someone else ready to step back in.

"There's nothing handed out this side of Christmas, and we understand we are going to face a lot of quality sides this year."

The Glens will hope to record a second win against Portadown this season on Friday, as they look to keep pace with leaders Coleraine at the top.

The Ports sit eighth in the table, but have recorded impressive wins over Cliftonville and champions Linfield, with Devine wary of the threat they pose on the counter attack.

"I've seen quite a bit of Portadown. Every time I have seen them, I've been really impressed. They have players with incredible pace and quality," Devine explained.

"Rayhaan Tulloch was a title winner with Shelbourne, [James] Teelan was outstanding against Linfield, Ben Wylie has been outstanding the last few games and I had Divin Isamala at Bohemians, so I know a lot of the players and against Linfield they could have been out of sight at half-time.

"You have to give credit to their manager bringing them up from the Championship and they are really hard to beat and play against. They possess players that on any given night if you're not on the money will punish you."