Irish League Rising Stars: The former right-back now sitting top of the U20 Premiership goalscoring charts after 'fairytale' season

Dungannon Swifts have developed a reputation over many years for being at the forefront of Irish League youth development, bringing through countless players that have either went on to bigger and better things across the water or stayed at home to forge a successful career on these shores.

Liverpool star Conor Bradley, Portsmouth ace Terry Devlin and recent Dundee signing Aaron Donnelly are just a few examples of the former category, while Steven Scott, Adam Glenny and Cahal McGinty are all playing key roles as Rodney McAree’s Swifts enjoy an ascension up the Premiership table, aiming for a first top-six finish since 2010.

It might just be that they’ve found another academy star that is destined for senior honours in 18-year-old striker Mattie McNally, but as U20 coach Paddy Quinn admits, the County Tyrone outfit almost accidentally stumbled upon how good the teenager is.

Deployed at right-back for most of his junior career, McNally was only sent into attack due to an injury crisis 12 months ago – he hasn’t looked back since, rounding last season out by scoring in five consecutive matches before netting 15 times in 18 U20 Premiership matches this term.

"It's a real story with Mattie because he has come from nowhere as a striker,” said Quinn. “He was a right-back up until 12 months ago.

"He was playing for the U18s and the striker was out injured so Gary Boyd decided to play Mattie up front and he looked at him like he had seven heads! He went in and straight away he scored eight goals in nine games for the U18s and this season he has kicked on again.

"It's great that he's getting the recognition because he's a great kid. Everybody is asking 'where did he come from?' and why he's suddenly appearing at the top of goalscorer lists, but it's been great.

"He's such a down to earth kid and a real hard worker. His family really value hard work themselves and that shines through in Mattie because he's a pleasure to coach and every time you give him information he takes it on board and tries to put it into his game the best he can.

"Over the years he has been a right-back and has been in and out of the team because that 2006 group at Dungannon had the likes of Sam Anderson, who is now at Luton Town, Ryan Donnelly is at Leicester City and Aidan Hegarty has just went out on loan after being involved with our first team.

"I think he really appreciates what is happening for him now he's the focal point of an attack and he's scoring lots of goals. He has been up training with the first team and it's a bit of a fairytale for him."

McNally and his U20 team-mates don’t have to look too far for inspiration about the potential career path they could follow in the years to come as Rodney McAree has shown a willingness to give youth an opportunity.

The young forward has already trained with the senior side and Quinn says the whole youth structure is embracing the rising standards at Stangmore Park.

"One thing is players getting big moves and another is the number of players that have came through the academy and went on to do really well in our first team,” he added. “We were using Tomas Galvin as a good example for Mattie because they are a similar style of player and we were trying to look at what Tomas is doing, where he gets his success and what he brings to the table for Rod.

"The likes of Scotty, Glenny and McGinty have all came through and are examples and inspiration to the young players.

"The big difference now is we are competing at the top-end of the league and the standards have risen at the club.

"People like Mattie have stepped up to that. If he isn't at the top of the goalscoring charts then Rod won't look at him, but he's putting himself around it and we're all delighted for him."