Sports Direct Premiership: Dungannon Swifts v Glentoran (Saturday, 3pm)
Back home where he belongs, Dungannon Swifts boss Rodney McAree believes he is starting to see the fruits of his labour as he appears to be leaving his mark and influence on the Co Tyrone side.
The ex-Fulham player decided to part company with trophy-chasing, big-spending Glentoran, after a successful six months in charge last season.
From Belfast the call from out west, his home, was one too strong to turn down, and despite fighting for survival rather than the title, he wouldn’t change a thing.
Saturday sees McAree welcome the Glens to Stangmore Park for the first time since he left the club.
He looks back fondly on his time at the Oval, but there is no doubting where his heart lies.
“Glentoran is a great club with great people”, he said.
“They also have a great set of fans who really treated me fantastically there in my short time at the helm. I was very fortunate, there was no animosity when I left and I will always look back on my time there fondly.
“This Saturday, however, there will be no conflict of interest. I’m the Dungannon manager and I’ll be doing everything in my power to bring the three points home.”
McAree did not benefit from the almost customary honeymoon period during the early portion of the campaign.
An impressive 4-4 draw with reigning champions Larne on opening day had hopes high, but September to the late autumn days of November were ravaged by inconsistency and defeats to sides also battling the drop.
“I think the season so far has probably been harder than expected.
“The first group of games threw up some very challenging ties for us, which proved doubly difficult with the players and myself learning to deal with a new group of individuals.”
However, things have improved markedly in the last month. The Swifts have managed to win three games in their last six outings, including last week’s late heroics in a 3-2 win away to Coleraine.
One burning bright light is undoubtedly striker Matthew Lusty, on loan from Larne for the season.
The 20-year-old has scored 12 goals in all competitions so far, a goalscoring source like this is invaluable for a side fighting the drop.
“Matty has been great for us,” McAree said.
“He has a great attitude for ayoung man and we’re just so pleased to have him.
“He probably wasn’t getting the game time at Larne or at Newry last year, so we had a chat and I told him he would play a big part in my plans.
”Could he stay beyond the summer at Stangmore?
“He is a Larne player first and foremost, but what I can say is that if he is here for the long-term, I think everyone at the club would be extremely happy. We have gained from his goals and he has gained from the game time and experience.”
Despite Dungannon’s improved form and scintillating League Cup run to the semi-finals, where they will host Linfield in January, McAree is still asking for more from his players.
They have now scored first on an incredible eight consecutive occasions, yet do not have the points to show forit, with second-half collapses all too familiar.
“That is a very frustrating stat,” McAree added.
“We’re probably conceding too many goals and it seems to be a second -half problem. We showed against Coleraine it’s certainly not a fitness problem, but we have to work on our self-belief or whatever it is to trust ourselves and get us over the line.”
Saturday’s opponents Glentoran are themselves entering a bit of a purple patch, after demolishing Linfield 4-0 and defeating Newry City last time out, and have risen to fourth in the league, after an inconsistent start to the season.
Last time the two played each other, it ended 0-0 at the Oval back in September and despite having a number of first-team players missing through injury McAree believes his side will hold no fears come kick-off.
“Even though we couldn’t quite hold out against Linfield a couple of weeks back, we were only five minutes away from a remarkable win at Windsor.
“After drawing at the Oval earlier in the season as well, the lads know we are competitive in almost all our games, and maybe on Saturday with home advantage we can stay concentrated at the back for 90 minutes and get the win our fans deserve.”
