Dungannon Swifts suffered a 5-1 reverse on Saturday to Carrick Rangers – with Eoghan Liggett the away scorer.

Carrick’s Adam Lecky lifted the match ball following hat-trick delight alongside goals for Joe Crowe and Paul Heatley.

Here’s the verdict of Dungannon Swifts manager Rodney McAree:

CARRICK SUPERIOR...

placeholder image — Eoghan Liggett (right) found the net in defeat for Dungannon Swifts at Carrick Rangers. (Photo by INPHO/Jonathan Porter)

"Listen, I can talk about how bad we were and stuff like that but Crusaders were hungry.

"They played the conditions, they played the pitch, they had a little bit of know-how about them, they put us under pressure, they didn't complicate it.

"And it hurt us...we couldn't deal with it, which was disappointing.

"The first half we tried to play too much, if that makes sense...we still tried to play square passes instead of playing forward.

"And all we worked on and all we spoke about all week was play forward and look to play in the opposition's half.

"For instance, there was a minute added at the end of the first half and with 15 seconds of that to go, our two centre-halves passed it three or four times to each other.

"And you're thinking to yourself, cop on a wee bit, to be honest.

"Maybe that's how we play and it's very hard to get away from it at times but today it was a case of getting your basics right...playing forward quickly, feeding off balls off your front men, getting free-kicks, getting throw-ins, getting corner-kicks, trying to deal with balls into your own box.

"We didn't do that, we didn't do either well enough."

STORY OF THE MATCH: Carrick Rangers 5 Dungannon Swifts 1 - Adam Lecky hat-trick ...

WHAT WENT WRONG…

"The first goal we gave a silly free-kick away on the halfway line, a ball that came into our box we don't deal with, the second goal is a cross Caolan Marron waits for Decky Dunne to come and collect it and doesn't do his own job, the third goal then comes across the six-yard box nobody anywhere near about from Adam Lecky.

"No disrespect to Carrick but we've conceded 11 goals against Carrick this season, which for me is a mentality thing...we've come here twice and conceded eight.

"Do some of our players not enjoy coming here?

"Do they feel as if they're not capable of coming here and getting a result?

"I don't know, so that's up to me to identify.

"Today’s a performance of three or four years ago and it's unacceptable...there will not be too many.”

DUNGANNON REACTION…

"It's disappointing in terms of the goals we've conceded.

"But it mightn't do us any harm, to be honest, because we've been humbled.

"Sometimes when Dungannon Swifts are sitting in the area of the table we're in, all of a sudden boys get a wee bit maybe comfortable and think that they're better than what they are.

"All of a sudden, the whole idea of how we have actually got there and what we have done week in, week out to maintain where we were and get where we were goes out the window.

"And it's maybe a wee bit of a wake-up call for some of them...disappointed with some individual performances, I'm not going to name them but it needs to be better and it has to get better.

"And we have to get back on the horse because we want to try and maintain that position that we're in at this moment in time.

"You just look forward to the next training session.”