'No ill feeling whatsoever' over Irish League player's Middle East exit as surprise cross-border transfer offers immediate boost

​Hours after confirming the departure of striker Junior fewer than five months since signing for the Swifts, Dungannon announced the capture of highly-rated League of Ireland-based midfielder Paul Doyle.

Having enjoyed a respected career across the border – most notably with Dundalk - the addition of Doyle is one which left McAree smiling but also surprised, accepting the deal “more a case of he'll come up and have a look at us”.

"Whenever he came on the radar a couple of weeks ago I never thought for a chance that Dungannon Swifts would have an opportunity of signing Paul,” said McAree, enjoying the reward of securing his signature thanks to collective efforts. "After a few conversations we managed to get him up to training.

"He came up and it was more a case of he'll come up and have a look at us.

"We've managed to get an agreement in place for him to sign for us on an 18-month contract.

"For me, it's a fantastic signing...as a club we want to move forward and the Board and committee and everybody have all helped massively in terms of helping us get it over the line.

"I remember watching Paul whenever I was at Glentoran along with Mick McDermott, he was a name that cropped up then...a very, very talented footballer.

"He had a little issue there for a bit with his hamstrings but he seems to have got over that with surgery."

With one face in to bolster the Swifts panel, McAree offered a tribute to another out the exit door – but with the best wishes of all at Stangmore Park.

"It's an opportunity of a full-time contract in the Middle East for Junior,” said McAree, ahead of the Swifts hosting Glentoran this weekend. "It was an agreement that we had whenever 'Juns' (Junior) came, if he did get the opportunity to return to full-time football we wouldn't stand in his way.

"We have to move on and try to find a suitable replacement, if we haven't already got one (at the club).

"We always knew...there was a little bit of a chance that it might have happened earlier on in the window.

"You're still looking at Andrew Mitchell, Sam Anderson, Darragh McBrien, Sean McAllister, Leo Alves, Corey Smith who can all play in forward areas...we still have enough, we might have to adapt a little bit.

"Even if we don't get one in, I still feel relatively confident.

"'Juns' was brilliant whenever he was with us...he probably came at a good time as well, we'd been through a poor enough start so he brought a little bit of freshness and helped get us going.

"Junior's a great, great guy, a fantastic fella...he's always been up front and honest with us, there's no ill feeling whatsoever.

“We would have loved to have been able to hold on to him, he felt as if maybe he was running out of time.

"At the age he’s at (31 years old) he wanted to give it a go.”