MANAGER'S VERDICT: Rodney McAree hails Dungannon Swifts star for 'grasping opportunity' in impressive Premiership debut during Glentoran victory

On the victory

"It was a hard-fought win...I’ve seen us play better in possession but thought out of possession we were very good. We gave cheap free-kicks away at times and invited balls into our box, but I felt we dealt with that well.

"Glentoran are a very strong, physical side and ended up being quite direct with bringing Wass on and playing him with Fisher through the middle and gave us a lot to deal with, but we dealt with it and limited them to maybe a couple of half-chances – it’s a win we’ll enjoy.”

On impressive Danny Wallace on club league debut

"He was very good. He hasn’t played any games during pre-season for Glenavon and he’s coming in here...Dean Curry has a bad knee which we have to manage and unfortunately after Thursday night it flared up.

"Dean wanted to play and be involved, but you have to give him credit because he held his hands up and said the best thing to do is let Danny play and he has grasped his opportunity.”

On if Wallace was an opportune signing late in the window or been tracking throughout

"He was probably one that we always spoke about but we didn’t know if first and foremost we could afford him and there were other clubs interested in Danny and it was a case of if he chooses us over them.

"We wanted to give what we had an opportunity but we just felt we were one centre-half short in terms of competitions for places and when we got to it we decided to go for Danny. He’s left-sided and that’s hard to get too.

"We’re very fortunate – we have Cahal McGinty, Dylan King, Dean Curry, Danny Wallace and John Scott who can play there.”

On quality of Dungannon’s squad

"We’ve tried every window to improve and get better and make sure when we’re making changes it’s like for like. We’re fortunate at the moment we’ve two very good physios so haven’t had many injuries.

"We’ve got good competition for places. When we look around at our bench we’re not afraid to make substitutions and I thought they helped us massively today.”

On Bobby-Jack McAleese

"Bobby-Jack is a really good footballer and that’s why he got the opportunity to sign for Nottingham Forest. We’re fortunate to have him and he seems happy and to be enjoying his football at this moment in time.

"Bobby-Jack is one where if he’s enjoying his football you know you’ll get a good performance out of him.”

On third clean sheet in a row and defensive improvements

"Last season we went in at half-time leading in games and then threw away points...we threw away a massive amount before Christmas so it’s something we’ve been addressing during pre-season.

"We want to make ourselves more solid, harder to beat and shut up shop a bit more and so far we’ve been able to do that. I’m very much somebody who likes to work on play going forward and we worked a lot on that last season, so maybe we’ve done more work this pre-season in our shape without the ball.

"I think when we get a taste of keeping a clean sheet the players have grasped that and it’s a nice feeling so we’ll try and get more.”