It was a disappointing afternoon for Dungannon Swifts as they fell to a 2-0 defeat to Glentoran, with the awarding of man of the match to Glens ‘keeper Andrew Mills reflecting the many chances the Swifts had to get on the scoreboard.
In his 300th game as Dungannon Swifts boss, Rodney McAree made one change from the draw against Ballymena United two weeks ago. Tiernan Kelly was replaced by Leo Alves.
The Swifts took to the field wearing a new third kit designed by two pupils at the club’s charity partner, Sperrinview Special School.
Rodney said: “That has made me very, very proud of the club that we are. We’re a family club who want to look out for people and want to do the right thing, and it’s fantastic for our players to see us wearing the Sperrinview shirts today.
“It was so proud to be able to put the kit on today and know that we’re trying to give something back, but that’s us as a club. That’s Dungannon Swifts. That’s what we really want.”
The Swifts started strongly, getting into good positions out wide and piling the pressure on the Glentoran defence with dangerous deliveries across the face of goal from Leo Alves, Sean McAllister and Adam Glenny but without clear scoring chances.
Glentoran threatened themselves, with Jordan Stewart’s pass reaching Jack Malone who squared it across to Ross Clarke, whose shot went wide.
Leo Alves then made another run down the left, and his low cross met Jamie Glackin, whose first time shot from close range was brilliantly saved by the hand of Mills in the Glentoran net.
For the second part of the first period, the Swifts continued to hold possession well and restrict Glentoran to chances that couldn’t test Henderson.
However, against the run of play, the deadlock was broken with five minutes to go in the half. Jordan Stewart twisted and turned before sending a cross into the box where James Singleton’s glancing header went over Alex Henderson to give the Glens a one goal advantage at half time.
The home side started as the better of the two teams in the second period, creating half chances and corners without troubling Henderson.
The Swifts had two glorious opportunities to equalise just after the hour mark. First, captain Gaël Bigirimana found himself with a yard of space just outside the area, but his flashing shot was saved by the fingertips of Andrew Mills to deny what looked like a certain goal.
The resulting corner was punched away by Mills, but only as far as Kealan Dillon, and his volley smacked off the post.
The visitors continued to pressurise Glentoran and bolstered their attacking options through substitutions as Andrew Mitchell and Corey Smith were introduced. Smith looked dangerous on occasions as he and Adam Glenny attacked Glentoran’s right hand side and Mitchell held the ball up well. However, as they searched for an equaliser, they couldn’t find the final ball to get past the Glentoran back-line.
It could have become 2-0 late on as a cross met Jordan Jenkins, but Adam Glenny was there to block on the line.
Deep into injury time, the Swifts earned a free kick to send in one last cross, but the danger was cleared, leaving a three on one where Jack Malone was played through and made it 2-0 with the last kick of the game and seal all three points for the home.
“I don’t think we deserve to get beat 2-0,” Rodney said.
“The second goal comes right at the death whenever we’re trying to get an equalizer. I thought in the first half we were excellent, we played some very good stuff and we concede a soft goal and go in one nil down whenever we have to show we bit more determination to put the ball in the opposition’s goal.
“Whenever we create the opportunities that we do or have the half chances that we do, we need to go up to the net because James Singleton gets a half chance for Glentoran off a cross ball and it ends up in the back of the net and we suffer for it.
“We took a little bit of time getting going in the second half, and then I thought we broke a few times and we showed a good level of play in terms of getting higher up the pitch and we got to do more then whenever we get there as well.
“Andrew Mills has pulled off a wonder save from Bigi and then we’ve hit the post shortly after that as well. Listen, in another day, we should be leaving here with something, we definitely deserve to leave with something, and it’s frustrating that we didn’t.
“In the first half we were excellent. Junes has a good opportunity which unfortunately goes straight at Andrew Mills. Jamie Glackin has one which gets across the near post. Sean McAllister flashes one across the six yard box. We got ball good ball into the area and we’ve got to capitalise and I’m frustrated, really, really frustrated that we don’t get anything out of today’s game.”
The Swifts return to Stangmore Park next Saturday to face Carrick Rangers with a 15:00 kick off.
Glentoran: Mills (GK), Cooney, Clarke (McMenamin 58’), Stewart (Daniels 66’), Sloggett, Brown, Larmour, Singleton (C) (O’Rourke 46’), Malone, Jenkins, Douglas (Kelly 78’).
Unused Substitutes: Crellin (GK), Gallagher, Rogers-Duffy.
Dungannon Swifts: Henderson (GK), McKeown (McGinty 78’), Dillon, Alves, Glenny, Gordon, Glackin (Kelly 64’), Wallace, Bigirimana (C), Junior (Mitchell 62’), McAllister (Smith 62’).
Unused Substitutes: McCloskey (GK), J. Scott, Johnston.
Referee: Tim Marshall
