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It was a frustrating day for the Swifts in the season’s first league game at Stangmore Park as they were defeated 4-1 by Mid-Ulster rivals Portadown.
The home side came into the match with a changed side to the one defeated in Windsor Park six days ago, bringing in Alex Henderson, Steven Scott, Tomás Galvin and Kealan Dillon for Declan Dunne, Mal Smith, Thomas Maguire and James Knowles.
Just two minutes in, Lewis MacKinnon fouled Galvin just outside the area, Dillon whipped in the free, and it went just past the post.
However, the away side were the team who created the best chances after this.
James Teelan whipped in two crosses in the space of a minute, one finding striker Abu Obhakhan’s head, who headed wide of the upright, and another just missing everyone in the area and going narrowly wide.
With six minutes on the clock, Portadown captain Gary Thompson got a ball to the face on the halfway line, going down, but the away side played on, and Eamon Fyfe found himself one on one with goalkeeper Henderson, and slotted it past him to make it 1-0.
Portadown maintained their momentum, earning a corner kick twelve minutes later. It found Josh Ukek and his header looped into the home team’s net, making it 2-0.
This sparked a reaction from the Swifts, with some great play finding Galvin in the box, who dribbled past one defender, and was too much for the next one to handle, being taken down, and the referee had no other choice than to point to the spot.
Sean McAllister stepped up from twelve yards and coolly slot the ball to Aaron McCarey’s left and into the net.
It looked like the away side would restore their two goal lead on twenty nine minutes when another corner was whipped in, this time however being cleared by Danny Wallace in the Swifts’ goal.
Despite there being three goals in the opening forty five minutes, the main talking point of the half came on thirty eight when the ball came to the middle of the pitch towards the Swifts captain, Gaël Bigirimana, who made an attempt at an overhead kick in the centre circle, but was unaware of the oncoming Eamon Fyfe, and connected with his head. Referee Steven Gregg immediately showed his red card to the man in blue and the Swifts were down to ten men.
“I thought it was a red card. Listen, he doesn’t know, I think it was Eamon Fyfe, he doesn’t know Eamon Fyfe is in the area that he is, he’s watching the ball go over his head, and he has a high foot, and it probably looks as if it was reckless. It’s very high, but it wasn’t intentional, but unfortunately, letter of the law, he deserved the red,” said Rodney McAree afterwards.
Even though it was the decisive moment in the first period, it wasn’t the last action. The Swifts whipped a ball into towards the Portadown defence, which found Tomás Galvin, and despite the last touch being off a red shirt, the linesman deemed him to be offside. The striker was unaware of this, and slotted it past the Portadown goalkeeper.
Rodney made three changes at the half time interval, bringing on James Knowles, Leo Alves, and Mal Smith.
The Swifts gained the first chance of the half when Steven Scott battled past a number of Portadown players and played the ball over to Sean McAllister whose shot went over the crossbar.
There looked to be a second penalty for the Swifts after this when Sean McAllister was tripped inside the box, however, to the disbelief of everyone in the ground, the challenge was waved away.
The second turning point of the game came twenty two minutes from time, when Leo Alves found himself sent to the dressing room. His first yellow card seemed harsh, with his first challenge of the afternoon landing him in the referee’s book. His second looked a little more reckless, and the referee showed him his second yellow card of the game, putting the home side down to nine men.
Regarding the second red card of the game, Rodney said, “The first tackle was found as a reckless challenge, I didn’t overly see it as a reckless challenge. I saw Leo, a lad who is a very good footballer take a poor touch, and he has dove in, he’s took a man down half way inside their own half, I didn’t see that as a yellow, and then it puts him under pressure, but the second yellow is a definite yellow.”
Despite the best efforts of the nine men in the blue shirts, the away side scored a third and fourth in the back end of the match.
Portadown’s third goal came from a deflected Jordan Gibson shot, which lifted over Alex Henderson in the home net, and the fourth came in injury time when a Ryan Mayse free kick found Jordan Gibson’s connected with the ball, and then landed in the back of the net, sealing his brace and a disappointing day for the Swifts.
Post-match, Rodney said, “I think whenever you look at us last season, we were competitive, and we fought for every ball, we competed for every second ball, we showed a competitive edge to us last season that we didn’t want to lose out in duels. First half, we didn’t win enough duels, first half we didn’t pick enough second balls up, we didn’t show any hunger, we didn’t show any desire. To be honest, the first half performance is totally unacceptable, we were lucky to go in at 2-1 down, we were lucky it wasn’t more.
“Losing Bigi at the stroke of half time was a disappointment, but I think the second half performance, and people may laugh at this, but the second half performance was probably the proudest I’ve felt as a manager of this football club, in terms of the effort, the desire, and the guts and determination that we showed in the second half, I thought that they were exceptional with ten men.
“I think we went thirty two minutes until we lost Leo to a second yellow card, I thought we were excellent. We competed, we were the better team for that thirty two minutes, we looked as if we were going to get an equaliser or get something out of the game, but unfortunately then we lose Leo to two yellow cards, and you’re fighting an uphill battle at that stage.”
Dungannon Swifts: Henderson, S. Scott, Marron (Knowles 45’), Galvin (T. Maguire 62’), Dillon (Alves 45’), Glenny, McGinty, Wallace, Mitchell (Smith 45’), Bigirimana (C), McAllister (McAleese 73’).
Unused Substitutes: Glass, P. Maguire.
Portadown: McCarey, Altintop, MacKinnon, Chapman, Wylie, Ukek, McCullough, Fyfe, Teelan (Mayse 68’), Obhakhan (Gibson 61’), Thompson (C) (Rea 78’).
Unused Substitutes: Moore, Isamala, Wilson, Traynor.
Next for the Swifts is a trip to Coleraine on Tuesday night. Up the Swifts!