How a piece of pre-match analysis resulted in Dungannon Swifts returning to winning ways

The decisive moment came after only 12 minutes when Caolan Marron’s pinpoint long ball to an alert Steven Scott bounding into space down the right was ultimately tucked home by Junior from close range.

To a normal observer, the sweeping move lasted only a matter of seconds from start to finish, but really it was the product of detailed work from McAree and his coaching staff who highlighted this exact route to victory.

Coming off last weekend’s defeat to table-toppers Coleraine which ended Dungannon’s run of four straight league triumphs, the Swifts weren’t at their free-flowing best, but McAree was delighted to see his men show an ability to “win ugly”.

"It's actually something that we looked at during the week in terms of getting Scotty or Adam (Glenny) high up the pitch and making a break,” he said. “We felt we could exploit that area.

"Thankfully, we get it in that area, Scotty's ball across the six-yard box is great and Junior's strong and brave. He gets on the end of it and gets a great goal for us.

"It is great because sometimes you do your analysis, sometimes you look at games and you think ‘where are we going to hurt them?’ and it never really pans out. It is nice that you do get a goal off something that you've saw and you get a big three points off the back of it.”

Dungannon had to ride their luck at times – Jack Malone sent an early free-kick crashing back off Declan Dunne’s crossbar while Michael O’Connor’s men created a number of other opportunities without showing a ruthless final touch.

Swifts defenders stood up to the challenge with ever-reliable Danny Wallace putting his body on the line to keep Glenavon at bay and help Dungannon move into the Premiership’s top-half.

"People talk about ugly 1-0 wins – that was an ugly 1-0 win,” added McAree. "It's strange because it comes at a good time for us...we actually spoke on Thursday night in-depth about whenever we don't do well, be harder to beat.

"We have to stay in the game more. If we're in front, we can't throw away leads. We don't draw enough games, if that makes sense.

"Over the past two seasons, I think we've drew six games, so we're heavily reliant on winning games. If we could pick up the odd draw whenever we're ugly, when we've been disappointed with our performance, then we're going to add to our points tally.

"Today we got a win, but it was an ugly 1-0 win. We were poor on the ball, we looked nervous, looked jittery every time we made a mistake.

"We looked frustrated and the frustration crept in, but to be fair to us, out of possession, we dug in and we ground out a good three points.

"Danny Wallace blocking shots, throwing his body on the line. Junior wins a great header in the six-yard box...those are the things that got us over the line.

"Glenavon did extremely well, they’ll be disappointed they're leaving with nothing, but we're delighted with a really ugly three points.”