It was heartbreak for the Swifts players, management, supporters, and everyone at the club after bowing out of the UEFA Conference League with a 3-0 defeat to FC Vaduz.
Pre-match, Rodney McAree made two changes to his side that earned a famous victory over the same opposition a week ago, with Leo Alves replacing Andrew Mitchell and James Knowles in for Kealan Dillon.
The opposition made one change coming into the match, as Angelo Campos replaced Fabrizio Cavegn, who is expected to move to English League Two side Bristol Rovers.
Minutes before kick-off, it was confirmed that the winners of this tie would face Dutch giants AZ Alkmaar in the next round, after they defeated Finnish side Ilves 5-0, after coming into the tie 4-3 down.
Once the match kicked off in Solitude, there were immediate concerns as Vaduz repeated the pressure they brought to bear in Liechtenstein early last week. Only two minutes in, Vaduz found an opening, only for Danny Wallace to make a good block ten yards from goal.
However, unlike last week, the Swifts grew into the game quicker, when after some great skill from Adam Glenny, they earned the first corner of the tie. James Knowles floated in an out-swinging ball towards Cahal McGinty, who just didn’t connect and Vaduz cleared.
The best chances of the half fell to Vaduz, first when Luca Mack slotted in Angelo Campos, only for Declan Dunne to make a big save at his near post, and 10 minutes later when Mischa Eberhard passed through to striker Marcel Eberhard, who found himself one-on-one with Dunne only for him to save well on his left hand side.
However, undoubtedly the biggest moment came on forty-four minutes when a scramble in the middle of the Vaduz half ended in disaster for the Swifts.
Luca Mack found himself contesting multiple headers, and in his third duel, new signing Tiernan Kelly appeared to catch the Vaduz midfielder with his elbow while challenging for the ball and without hesitation, the Swedish referee took out his red card and the Swifts were down to ten men, sending shockwaves across all areas of Solitude.
Rodney McAree said afterwards he had yet to see a replay.
“I’m not overly sure whether it is a sending off. If the referee’s got it right, then fair play, but it’s one of those decisions that you have to make sure that you have got it right, because it’s certainly an uphill task for us at that stage.
“I think it’s two boys going to challenge for a ball in the middle of the park, and whenever you’re jumping to compete for an aerial ball, your arms have to elevate you, so I don’t think there has been too much malice in it, and unfortunately we’ve paid the price.”
Even though the Swifts were three-quarters of the way through to the next round at the half time interval, it felt like a seriously uphill task to hold on to their 1-0 aggregate lead.
However, the first good chance of the half fell to the home side. Leo Alves whipped in a free from just outside the area, which connected with the head of Cahal McGinty, and he came agonisingly close when his header went narrowly over the upright.
After this Vaduz would make use of the extra man, putting in cross after cross into the Swifts box, and having their best chance when a loose defensive clearance found Nicolas Hasler, who crossed the ball and found the head of number nine Marcel Monsberger, only for Dunne to make a good save.
Six minutes later, he met another cross, only this time his header went into the side netting.
The chance of the half came a short while later when a corner from Dominik Schwizer caught the head of substitute Jonathan De Donno six yards out, and the ball smashed off the crossbar.
Despite a heroic effort from the ten-men Swifts, Vaduz finally got their goal just ten minutes from time when Mats Hammerich found himself open outside the area, and scored into the bottom right of Declan Dunne’s goal.
After this, it would be the home side who would get the next great chance, when another Leo Alves free found Cahal McGinty, only for his header to be senationally saved in the top corner from the leaping Schaffran.
Vaduz would have the last chances of normal time, but Declan Dunne stood strong in goal to keep out the likes of De Donno, and Eberhard, and the referee blew his full time whistle, and not for the first time this year, the Swifts headed into extra time.
Just seven minutes into the first period, the Swifts had a golden opportunity. Adam Glenny whipped in a superb cross and Andrew Mitchell was millimetres away from connecting with the ball.
Minutes later, the home fans were silenced when a Javier Navarro header went into the goal, only for the offside flag to be raised and the goal disallowed.
Devastatingly, in the third of three added minutes in the first period of extra time, Vaduz scored an almost identical goal to their first, this time slotting into the left side of the net by Eberhard, and the dream looked over.
After this, Rodney made attacking subs, bringing on Thomas Maguire, Leon Boyd, and Tomas Galvin, immediately sparking a reaction from the boys in blue.
The home side created chance after chance in the second half of extra time, with their best one in the dying moments, when a scramble in the box fell to Andrew Mitchell, whose shot was agonisingly cleared off the line.
Heartbreakingly, with the goalkeeper out of his goal, Nicolas Hasler then went up the pitch and sealed the game for the Liechtenstein side – a cruel blow to the Swifts team, who left everything they had on the Solitude pitch.
The game ended up a flattering 3-0 to the away side (3-1 on aggregate), which doesn’t tell the full story, as the Swifts gave absolutely everything they had, fighting with ten men for most of the game, and creating their own chances as well, with an incredible crowd in excess of one thousand cheering them on minute after minute.
Post-match, Rodney said, “I’m massively proud, we have to be proud… everybody has worked extremely hard over these two games, everybody has worked extremely hard over pre-season, and they’ve done themselves proud, I think they’ve done their family proud, I think they’ve done their league proud, they’ve certainly done me proud, and they’ve done the club proud.
“I was disappointed with the two goals we conceded on the night, we need to stop the shot, we need to get closer to the shot, and defend it better, and defend the build up better too. So, there were little disappointments with that, but I can’t blame them for their efforts certainly, and congratulations to Vaduz as well for going through to the next round.”
The Swifts fans had turned Solitude from red to blue for the night, and Rodney was full of praise for the home support,
“Thank you. The support that we had in the Irish Cup, the support that we had here tonight, it’s great to see more bodies, more people coming out to watch us. I believe that if we continue to get the same level of commitments out of the players that we did tonight, we can reward those supporters for their faith in their support.”
Due up next up for the Swifts is another trip to Belfast, this time to Windsor Park in the first league game of the new season against defending champions, Linfield.
“Pre-season has been fantastic, in terms of the games that we have had, the opposition that we have played, the fitness levels that we have gained out of it as well, so it has been a different pre-season for us, but it has been a very, very enjoyable one for us that has flew in, and now we are looking forward to the start of the season, and we can’t wait to put our wits against the rest of the league and see how we get on,” said Rodney.
Following Linfield’s win in the UEFA Conference League this week, it has been decided that the game has been moved 24 hours from Saturday August 9th to the following day at the same time. Up the Swifts!
Dungannon Swifts F.C.: Dunne, S. Scott (Boyd), Marron (T. Maguire 105’), Knowles (McAleese 98’), Alves (Dillon 80’), Glenny, Kelly, McGinty, Wallace, Bigirimana (C) (Galvin), McAllister (Mitchell 73’).
Unused Substitutes: Henderson, J. Scott, P. Maguire, King, Bermingham, Smith.
F.C. Vaduz: Schaffran, Berisha (C), Simani, Schwizer (Hoxha 108’), Seiler (Lang 105’), Monsberger, Beeli (N.Hasler 45’), Campos (Navarro 55’), Mack (Hammerich 58’), Eberhard, Dantas Fernandes (De Donno 73’).
Unused Substitutes: Büchel, Oehri, A. Hasler.