Rodney McAree calls on Dungannon Swifts players and staff to 'decide if they want to be part of this club moving forward'
Rodney McAree revealed he has asked his players to reflect and decide “do they want to be part of this club” after suffering their fourth consecutive Premiership defeat of the season in a 2-0 home loss against Carrick Rangers.
The Swifts recorded their joint-best top-flight finish last term alongside winning the Irish Cup for the first time in club history, but they haven’t been able to carry that momentum into the new campaign.
Adam Lecky’s weekend double ensured Carrick maintained a perfect start with Stephen Baxter’s men collecting a third straight win.
Dungannon are one of only two teams – Glenavon the other – yet to collect a Premiership point with McAree’s side sitting bottom on goal difference having conceded 11 times in four matches.
Having grown up around the County Tyrone club before becoming a player, captain and now manager, McAree admits their current run of form “hurts”.
"After 20 minutes, it was embarrassing and far from good enough,” he told the club's media channel. “I’m a great believer that performances on the pitch reflect your manager – in my opinion, that’s no reflection on me but I have to take responsibility for the performance.
"For the supporters, for the paying public who come through the turnstiles and back us, they didn’t deserve that and they got short-changed.
"If the players go home and think that’s good enough then there’s something wrong.
"I’ve asked them to go away and reflect on where they are, what they want to do, where they want to go, do they want to be part of this club?
"I’ve said that to the staff as well. It’s an opportunity in this short space of time to decide if they want to be part of this club moving forward or not.
"If anybody comes to me and says they want to move on then I’ll respect that. I’d respect that more so than having somebody who stays, lifts a wage and doesn’t really care.
"It hurts. It hurts me because I'm a supporter and I grew up here so I understand it’s not good enough, but we will work tirelessly and try and put things right as quickly as we can.
"We have to stick together as best as we can.”
Dungannon’s form at Stangmore Park set the platform for last season’s success with only runaway champions Linfield collecting more home points, but this term has began with defeats to Portadown and Carrick, conceding six goals across those two matches.
A worrying trend so far this season has been leaking goals in quick succession – Lecky’s brace came within a span of four minutes while the Ports netted twice in a 13-minute period last weekend and Coleraine in nine minutes on Tuesday.
"I thought we started the game well and for the first 20 minutes we were decent,” added McAree. “We had four opportunities in the first 20 minutes but we don’t show the hunger to put the ball in the opposition’s net.
"The hungrier team won. They play to their strengths and areas of the pitch which put you under pressure. You have to show a desire and hunger to keep it out of your net and we didn’t do that.”