Rodney McAree has already swooped to make his second signing of the summer. Midfielder Corey McMullan joins the Swifts from fellow NIFL club Glentoran FC.

McMullan, 22, had previously played for Limavady United and Ballyclare Comrades before joining the East Belfast club last summer. Speaking previous, McMulllan said:

“I’ve always been into sports. When I was younger I played football, tennis, badminton…I had a go at everything really but football has always been my main passion. Some of my best memories are of the Milk Cup which is held up in the north coast. I was captain of the Derry/Londonderry team and we played against some of the biggest teams in the world including CSKA Moscow and the Corinthians from Brazil. The following year I represented Northern Ireland in the Under 18s Centenary Shield. I think getting to play for your nation is a great honour and what it made it even more sweet was the fact that we beat the Republic in Sligo on St Patrick’s Day by scoring a last minute winner.”

“The first team that I played for was Limivady United and then when I was nineteen I moved to Ballyclare Comrades. I’m originally from Coleraine but I knew that the Ballyclare team had a good reputation and were good at giving young players a chance on the field. I decided to go and play for them – even though it took me an hour to get to training every week.”

“I played with them for one year and won ‘Player of the Month’ for the NIFL championship in January.”

“I have just finished studying Maths at University of Ulster, Jordanstown, and I was thinking of doing a masters in maths and also considering doing a PGCE in maths, but I haven’t quite made my mind up about that one yet.”

“It can be tough trying to balance work and football but I do manage it fit it all in. This past year, while playing for Glentoran, I’ve been up from 6.30am to get to work and I usually stay on late because I have training after work in Belfast or Crumlin until 8.30pm. After training, I do my own training and practice my shooting to improve my game.”

“I support Man United as a team but the players whose careers I’d like to emulate would be Pogba and Steven Gerrard. They both play centre midfield and have a similar game to me. Gerrard is a good athlete – there are a lot of guys who can attack and defend but Gerrard is an all-rounded mid fielder. Currently it’s the off season but the pre-season is fast approaching and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and seeing where my football career will take me.”

“A massive part of my decision for Dungannon Swifts was definitely Rodney, as he takes a lot of the sessions and I like the way he sets the team up and I have always admired the way Dungannon Swifts play, playing against them they’re a good team to get the ball down and it’s a team that I can only see going one way.”

“This season, I would like to get playing regularly again. I feel I need to be playing to develop at this age and under Rodney I think I will do that. Also, I would like to start getting a few goals in the league this year as I didn’t manage to get too many last year.”

 

“Dungannon won the Bet McLean league cup last year and Rodney spoke to me about progressing on that – pushing up the league and obviously more silverware. As I said, it’s a team only going one way and Rodney signing a new contract is massive for the progression of the Club and I’m delighted to be here!”

Rodney McAree is delighted with the signing of Corey and he added this:

“Corey is someone we had our eye on the year before last when he was playing for Ballyclare Comrades, he was a player who was very energetic, that got into the box very well, and scored goals from midfield but unfortunately Glentoran got in ahead of us before we even got the chance to speak to him so we have had to wait until now to get our man.”

“Technically his is a very good player first and foremost, and he adds a lot of energy. He gives us something different to the other midfielders we have in our squad and it certainly gives us another quality option.”

“It’s me certainly done with midfielders in this transfer window, we have an array of talent in that department which can only push players on with the level of competition.”

“I’m very happy with the signing and I look forward to working with Corey.”

Welcome to Stangmore Park Corey.