Sean McAllister’s injury time header delivered a well deserved but hard fought victory for Dungannon Swifts against Limavady United after a dramatic and topsy turvy second half filled with goals, drama and action.
Rodney McAree’s starting team consisted of only one change from last week’s 1-1 draw at Windsor Park against Linfield. Jamie Glackin was replaced by McAllister.
The visiting Roesiders began the game the stronger of the two sides, creating a couple of big early chances. Oisin Duffy had an effort which went narrowly over the crossbar, and John Butcher had a header from a cross which hit the top of the bar.
In the ten minutes after this, the Swifts created three opportunities of their own. Crosses were played into the box on both wings from Corey Smith and Sean McAllister towards Junior, but the Englishman was unable to hit the back of the net. Paul Doyle also had a beautiful curling effort from just inside the box which struck the crossbar.
On the half hour mark, the home side were scratching their heads as to how they didn’t take the lead. It looked to be a routine pick up for the goalkeeper, but a slip from Martin Gallagher gave Junior an empty net to shoot into, only for his shot to be cleared off the line brilliantly at the last second by Kieran Farren.
Just before half time, Sean McAllister had another two opportunities to score. First, Steven Scott and Leo Alves combined well down the right to get the ball across to McAllister at the back post, but he volleyed wide of the empty net. He then got past some defenders in the box and unleashed a shot which went inches past the left post.
Despite all of this pressure, the visitors took the lead at the beginning of the second half. A one-two from a throw in led to a cross which went over everyone in the box and reached John Butcher, who took a touch with his chest and volleyed into the goal to put the Roesiders one ahead.
It didn’t take long for the Swifts to respond as they came extremely close to scoring. Paul Doyle was played through with just the goalkeeper to beat, but Gallagher made an impressive foot save to keep his team ahead.
Eventually, in the 71st minute, Dungannon Swifts got their reward. A quick throw in by Corey Smith was played behind the defence to Adam Glenny, who crossed to substitute Andrew Mitchell and he deftly diverted it into the net to equalise.
Eight minutes later, the Swifts took the lead. A long ball was headed out and ended at Kealan Dillon’s feet, and the substitute produced a great strike into the bottom corner, leaving the goalkeeper with no chance and putting the Swifts 2-1 up.
The Roesiders responded with a free kick from twenty five yards out that Daniel Lafferty hit just past the post.
Then, with just five minutes of normal time to go, Limavady made it 2-2. A corner was played in to the near post, but Cahal McGinty’s could only direct his header into his own net for an own goal.
The Swifts piled the pressure onto the Limavady United defence for the remainder of the game. In the last minute of stoppage time, Gaël Bigirimana had a shot from inside the area which was blocked for a corner. Kealan Dillon’s delivery met Sean McAllister at the near post, whose header went into the net to win the game.
After a failed halfway line shot from the restart, Niall Devlin blew his full time whistle to signal a 3-2 Dungannon Swifts win, to the delight of the players, management and supporters.
Post-match, Rodney McAree said, “I thought in the first five, ten minutes we were second best. We started slow, we started sluggish. Limavady hit the crossbar through a great header from Butcher, but we show a good response after that. I thought for the remainder of the first half we were exceptional. We found our flow, we did things quicker and we created lots of opportunities, but we never made Marty Gallagher make too many saves, and that’s the disappointing side of things. We could have come in at half time and in my opinion the game could have been dead and buried with a little bit more composure and better finishing. There’s a level of frustration then in the changing room at half time, probably from myself but not in an angry way, just frustrated.
“We come out in the second half and we fall behind to a poor goal. We switch off to a quick throw in and it comes into our box and we don’t get close enough to John Butcher and it’s a fantastic finish from him. We don’t actually play as well in the second half as we did in the first half, but we end up scoring three goals, in the first half we don’t score any, but we showed good character, we showed good togetherness, especially whenever Cahal misdirects a header into the back of our own net. We showed good togetherness after that to go and actually just get the win, it’s a great delivery from Kealan Dillon and a good header from Sean.”
Up next for the Swifts is a Mid-Ulster Cup semi-final clash against Glenavon on Tuesday night with a 19:45 kick off.
Dungannon Swifts: Dunne (GK), McGinty, Kelly (Dillon 58’), Smith, S. Scott, Alves (Bigirimana 58’), Glenny, Doyle (C) (Gordon 69’), Wallace, Junior (Mitchell 58’), McAllister.
Unused Substitutes: Henderson (GK), J. Scott, Glackin.
Limavady United: Gallagher (GK), Farren, T. Boorman, Jarvis, P. Lowry (C), Duffy (S. Lowry 46’), Tosh (Boyd 77’), R. Boorman, Butcher (Fleming 88’), Lafferty, Wilson.
Unused Substitutes: Browne (GK), Riley, O’Donnell, Mullan.
Referee: Niall Devlin
