Tomorrow night we make the trip to County Tyrone with a visit to Stangmore Park
Having comfortably avoided relegation last season with a ninth-place finish, Dungannon Swifts manager Dean Shiels has focused his summer recruitment on trying to address the main weakness of his side last term, conceding too many goals.
No other side gave away more than the Swifts last year so, to that end, Shiels has brought in Ballinamallard Central Defender Dean Curry (who has previous top flight experience with Institute) and Portadown Left Back Michael Ruddy on a permanent basis as well as youngster Mayowa Animasahun on a season long loan from Dundalk. Most recently, our own Darren Cole has also signed on for a season’s loan at Stangmore Park and been joined by our former Striker Michael O’Connor.
Unfortunately for Shiels and the Dungannon supporters, this defensive revamp is yet to make a difference, as they have conceded seven goals in their opening two games, losing 5-1 away to Crusaders in the season opener at Seaview and 0-2 at Stangmore Park on Saturday to Ballymena United. With defender Cole ineligible to face his parent club, Shiels is likely to turn to either Cahal McGinty or Animasahun to fill one of the central defensive positions. Further up the field, striker Joe McCready will be hoping to regain his place at the expense of O’Connor and James Convie, Ben Gallagher and Ruairi McDonald could all come in to contention for a place in midfield after coming on as replacements in the Ballymena game.
Glentoran have won on our last four league visits to Stangmore Park: most recently a 1-0 success in March of this year, with Conor McMenamin netting the decisive goal 2 minutes before the break. The last Dungannon win was in August 2019, when a Seanan Clucas goal helped secure a 3-1 win over a new look Glens team.
Mick McDermott: “Not surprisingly, I was very happy with Friday night’s performance and result at the Bet McLean Oval. Our players showed a lot of character to come back so quickly after conceding early. We controlled the second half and were well worth our very good win over a very good Crusaders team that’s been on a great run since well back into last season.
So we go to Dungannon on a good frame of mind. The Swifts have had a couple of negative results to start the season, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to bad performances. Dean has a good squad of players, he has them coached very well and they play very good football. So we will show them the respect they deserve and we should be in for another good game in a stadium where the Glentoran supports usually makes itself well heard.”
