RODNEY McAree hailed high-flying Dungannon Swifts' stunning 5-1 crushing of Crusaders at Seaview as one of the Tyrone’s team’s “best ever performances”.
It was a match in which referee Louise Thompson made history as the first woman to take charge of a top-flight men’s fixture in the Irish League.
The victory powers the Swifts to an unlikely second spot in the Sports Direct Premiership, 12 points behind runaway leaders Linfield who beat Carrick Rangers 3-0 at Windsor Park.
John McGovern and Tomás Galvin both scored twice for the Swifts, the other goal coming from new recruit Brandon Bermingham, while Jordan Owens replied late on for the Crues with the home side already 4-0 down at that point.
McAree beamed: “That’s among our best ever performances. It’a a long time since we won at Seaview so we came with a burning desire. You’re a proud manager when you get a performance and a result like that.”
McAree stressed that no-one at the club is getting carried away by their lofty league position.
“We haven’t got to where we are on luck. We have good players. We have experience and we have youth too. Long may it continue.
We want to finish as high up the league as possible. We don’t have a massive support but they are enjoying themselves at the minute," he said.
Second-half goals from Joel Cooper, Euan East and Matthew Fitzpatrick eased Linfield to victory over Stephen Baxter’s Carrick.
Blues boss David Healy said: “I warned the players about Carrick’s know-how – they’ve one of the best managers around. We created decent opportunities.”
James Teelan’s 34th-minute goal handed Portadown a 1-0 win over Loughgall at Lakeview Park.
The Ports are in fourth spot and but boss Niall Currie wanted more from his team.
He said: “We didn’t take our chances. When you do that you are giving the opposition oxygen so Loughgall threw the kitchen sink at us towards the end. But we dug in - the players went into the trenches.”
He added: “A couple more wins and we will be safe. We need to get a couple of players in through the door in the window.”
Ballymena United’s clash with Glentoran at the Showgrounds and Glenavon against Coleraine at Mourneview Park were both postponed.
Champions Larne beat Cliftonville 2-0 at Inver Park on Friday night and sit fifth, 19 points behind leaders Linfield but with five matches in hand due to their European commitments.