Dungannon Swifts players need to take belief from Mid-Ulster Cup success as they prepare for Glenavon visit, says boss Rodney McAree

The Swifts picked up a comfortable 8-0 win against junior side Tandragee Rovers in the Mid-Ulster Cup during midweek, with Glenavon also victorious against Banbridge Town in the competition.

However, attention has quickly turned back to Sports Direct Premiership duty as the Swifts will aim to bounce back from the disappointment of losing to Carrick Rangers last time out.

In contrast, Glenavon picked up their first league victory last weekend as Calum Birney’s header saw off the challenge of Ballymena United.

"It'll be a tough game," McAree told Dungannon Swifts TV.

"Glenavon have won their last two games, including in the Mid-Ulster Cup against Banbridge Town.

"They beat Ballymena last weekend so they will be a little buoyed by that.

"We know what we're going to face.

"We're going to face a team who are going to come and ask us questions and be extremely hard to beat.

"That's what Gary Hamilton sides always do and we're going to have to be at our best if we're going to get something out of it.

"We have to go into it with a little bit of belief from Tuesday's game in terms of the chances we created and the goals that we scored, plus the clean sheet.

"It's one that we are looking forward to."

McAree was full of praise for Tandragee's performance at Stangmore Park - especially in the first half - as they made things difficult for the Swifts.

"I thought Tandragee Rovers did very, very well," he continued.

"They made it difficult for us in the first half as they were hard to break down.

"On the flip side of that, I thought we could have done things a bit quicker in the first half and been a little bit tidier on the ball.

"We made a great start and we took our foot off it a little but you have to give Tandragee credit for that.

"In the second half I thought we did everything better, I think we played forward quicker and we scored a few goals.

"It's nice to get a clean sheet also irrespective of who we were playing.

However, McAree singled out one of his elder statesmen for being the star of the show against Tandragee as the Swifts' superior fitness levels paid dividends after the interval.

He added: "I feel our fitness levels are decent.

"I think that shows in the games that we've come back late on in stoppage time to get results.

"The fitness levels aren't in question, I thought Thomas Maguire came in and was impressive on his debut and got his goal.

"I look at Kealon Dillon who you're able to call on from the bench, he comes on, puts his foot on the ball and finds passes.

"He replaced Ryan Harpur, Ryan is 35 years of age but he still showed his class.

"I thought Ryan was probably our best player so it's all about trying to get him to recover as best as we possibly can."