Swifts Secretary Simon Graham pictured with Northern Ireland Manager Michael O’Neill at the presentation of our premiership Domestic Licence at The Culloden Estate on Friday.
Stephen O’Neill signs & other contract news
We are delighted to announce that Centre forward Stephen O’Neill has signed for the Club and becomes the sixth new player to join the Swifts in the close season.
O’Neill has joined the club from Carrick Rangers, making the same move as another of our new signings, Grant Hutchinson. O’Neill is a hardworking centre forward who will hopefully score the goals that we craved for last season. He featured for Carrick Rangers just short of thirty times in the league last season scoring eight goals during those games. Hopefully the twenty-seven year old can produce the goods for the Swifts in 2012/13 season. Welcome to the Club Stephen.
In other contract news, long serving Swifts player Conor Forker has signed a new contract to remain at Stangmore Park.
Due to work commitments Michael Ward will not be having his contract renewed at Stangmore Park. Michael is unable to offer as much commitment to the game as he previously has in the past and a decision was reached by management and Michael to part company. Michael has been a terrific servant to Dungannon Swifts and Dungannon United Youth throughout his footballing career and we wish him all the best for the future.
Michael Funston will also not be having his contract renewed at the Swifts due to work commitments. We would like to take the opportunity to thank Michael, who faithfully travelled to Dungannon (sometimes further afield on a Saturday!) three times a week from Letterkenny to represent Dungannon Swifts. We wish him all the best in the future.
Contract news
The management are pleased to announce that a selection of players have signed new contracts for the Swifts. As mentioned just before the end of the season goalkeeper Niall Morgan and teenage Striker Stefan Lavery both agreed new deals. In addition to these two players, Ryan O’Neill, Johnny Montgomery and Terry Fitzpatrick have all been signed up for at least another season each.
Craig McClean has left for Crusaders, Liam Donnely for Fulham and lately Shea McGerrigan has left to join Championship side Ards.
Darren and Rodney are planning to discuss contracts with the rest of the squad over the next week or so.
Swifts first team coach Rodney McAree has said, “A lot of players are running out of contract. We have to make sure that everybody is spoken to. Some players will sign up and unfortunately some will move on, we have a budget to stick to. The people we have signed so far have given us options, it’s good to have options and we didn’t last season. “
“I’m excited about the new season. Last season was a long, hard one and no-one wants to go through that again. I’m happy with what we have brought in. We have targeted six and we have got five of them and we are hopeful of getting the other one.”
Gawley & Douglas latest additions to The Swifts
As promised the management team of Murphy and McAree have been busy recruiting new players to bolster our current batch of players. In addition to the three new players already signed up for the season ahead, the Swifts Management team have wasted no time in snapping up a further two players, former Glentoran and Lisburn Distillery midfielder, Neal Gawley and former Dungannon United Youth Player, Jamie Douglas.
Midfielder Gawley, 26, is a versatile player who can play on either wing or up front, he has great pace and an eye for goal and will be a very welcome addition to the Swifts side. He has joined the Swifts from playoff winning side Lisburn Distillery, where he made over 30 appearances last season as a midfielder. As a player who has copious amounts of Irish league experience to his name, Neal also carries with him the experience of having represented Glentoran and Distillery in the Intertoto Cup, Europa League and the Setanta Cup, over the past five years.
Jamie, at 5’11” is predominantly left-footed but he’s got two terrific feet, he plays off shoulders, like Gawley, he also has a superb eye for goal and is quick. The Northern Ireland Youth International is a frontman who can also play on the left.
The nineteen year old signed for Preston North End from Dungannon United Youth when he turned sixteen years old. One year later in April 2010, after scoring plenty of goals and impressing in the youth setup/reserve team at PNE, Jamie was handed a professional contract with the club. He went on to score his first professional goal for PNE to equalise against Carlisle United in the 92nd minute on Boxing Day, 2011. Jamie was released from PNE in May 2012 and has decided to return to the club he played for in his youth.
Welcome to the Swifts Neal, and welcome back to Dungannon Jamie. We are delighted to have you both on board at Stangmore Park.
Double Signing boosts Swifts Squad.
The Swifts management team have made a further two signings for the 2012/13 season at Stangmore Park. Winger Chris Lavery and midfielder Grant Hutchinson.
Twenty-one year old Chris Lavery joins the Swifts from IPL side Glenavon. Chris, A tricky left winger who can also play upfront, has bags of pace and great potential. He came through the reserve set up at Glenavon and was introduced to the first team by Marty Quinn where he showed plenty of early season promise. However, after suffering an injury he lost his place in the starting team. Chris made fifteen first team appearances at Mourneview Park for the Lurgan Blues, adding another fourteen from the bench, scoring six goals in total.
Grant Hutchinson who previously played for Ballinamallard prior to moving to Carrick at the start of last season, made a total of twenty-eight Carling Premiership league appearances.
Now twenty-two years old, Grant who was at Ballinmallard United from the age of six, after having progressed through the youth teams, winning the Harry Cavan Youth Cup along the way, made his first team debut at sixteen years of age. Like a few of our current and past players Grant has represented Northern Ireland at School boy level which included captaining the side against Australia in 2008.
Both Lavery and Hutchinson are still quite young and can bring a breath of fresh air to the current squad with their abundance of youth and talent between them.
Welcome to Dungannon Swifts Chris and Grant. We wish you both great success in your Swifts career.
The presentation of Groundsmen of the Year trophy’s were made by IFA President Jim Shaw at the Irish Cup Final.
The Winners were,
IFA Premiership: Roy Stretton of Dungannon Swifts.
Championship 1: Mervyn Nixon of Ballinamallard United.
Championship 2: Keith Berry PSNI
The overall winner was Mervyn Nixon of Ballinamallard United.
Congratulations to Roy and his team of helpers. Our pitch has been in immaculate condition this season.
Well done.
(Source: http://Swifts win best Premiership surface)