Dungannon Swifts suffered a home defeat to Carrick Rangers after a game filled with attacking football, ending with six goals and a 4-2 win for the ‘Gers.
Rodney McAree named an unchanged side from last Saturdays 2-0 loss away to Glentoran.
Both teams started the game well, creating chances in the early stages. The visitors had a shot from Danny Gibson saved by Henderson, while Shea Gordon sent an effort over the bar for the Swifts after a good cross from Jamie Glackin.
The first goal came on just nine minutes. A ball over the top reached Paul Heatley, who tapped it over the approaching Alex Henderson and headed in to give Carrick Rangers a 1-0 lead.
However, the Swifts replied just three minutes later. A nice flick from Junior reached Jamie Glackin, who played Kealan Dillon through and he slotted in to level the score.
The ‘Gers thought they had regained the lead just a minute later after a Danny Gibson eader from a throw-in ended up in the net, only for the linesman to raise his flag.
On 20 minutes, Carrick did take the lead. A corner from the left was cleared only to Steele at the edge of the penalty area, whose cross met Joe Crowe and he tapped in to give the visitors a 2-1 advantage.
Both teams continued to pile the pressure on each other’s defences. Danny Gibson forced a great foot save from the Swifts goalkeeper, and Adam Glenny’s header from six yards out produced a great reaction block from Nathan Gartside.
After a series of half chances for both teams, Danny Gibson had the ball in the net for the second time in the game, but it was deja-vu for him as it was once again ruled offside.
On the stroke of half-time, the away side scored again. Ben Buchanan-Rolleston made a lightning run down the left and crossed in, with Swifts defender Danny Wallace turning the ball into his own net to give Carrick a 3-1 lead at the break.
The second half saw lots more attacking football, and there were great opportunities for both teams to score early on. Leo Alves was played through by Kealan Dillon, but his effort from the left hit the side netting. Minutes later, Paul Heatley’s volley smacked the crossbar.
Carrick got their fourth mid-way through the half. A long throw-in was flicked on to Danny Gibson who volleyed into the net from inside the six yards out.
The Swifts continued to put pressure on the Carrick Rangers defence with Adam Glenny and Sean McAllister getting shots on goal without any success. With 10 minutes to go, the referee awarded a penalty after Corey Smith was fouled, and McAllister slotted into the goal to give the Swifts some hope for the remainder of the game.
However, the Carrick defence managed to restrict the Swifts to minor chances and keep the score 4-2 until the final whistle.
Post-match, Rodney McAree said, “Probably the one of one of the worst results that we’ve had. Certainly defensively it was one of the worst performances we’ve had, it wasn’t good enough. We all have to take responsibility for that, we have to identify where Carrick was hurting us, especially in the first half. We were getting caught too high up the pitch and whenever we got caught too high up the pitch we gave the ball away needlessly. We give the ball away cheaply and with Paul Heatley and Danny Gibson, they’ve got two players whose pace can cause you problems and they certainly did that. But we certainly brought a lot of pressure on ourselves in terms of how we defended.
“I thought we had chances in the game. I thought we created plenty of chances. It’s a strange game where I thought we were really poor, but we could have scored six or seven, and on the flip side of that, Carrick could have scored ten or eleven, and that’s a wee bit concerning. We go in at half time and Carrick have scored three and had two goals disallowed as well, and it just felt as if every time on transition whenever they won the ball back, they were going to hurt us and
we didn’t identify that and we stepped into areas as defenders that we shouldn’t have been stepping in to and we left massive space behind us and we got punished.”
Dungannon Swifts: Henderson (GK), McKeown (Doyle 62’), Dillon, Alves, Glenny, Gordon (McGinty 46’), Glackin (Smith 68’), Wallace, Bigirimana (C) (Kelly 46’), Junior (Mitchell 68’), McAllister.
Unused Substitutes: McCloskey (GK), J. Scott.
Carrick Rangers: Gartside (GK), Nelson, Forsythe (O’Connor 72’), Callacher, Gibson, Lecky, Steele, Buchanan-Rolleston, Crowe (C) (Clucas 72’), Heatley, Snoddy.
Unused Substitutes: Agnew (GK), Maciulaitis, Moore, Hastings, Hawthorne.
Referee: Mark Dillon
