Rodney McAree hails Dungannon Swifts' hat-trick hero who is returning to player 'we all know and love'

Gallagher opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 17 minutes at Stangmore Park and had his team 3-0 up at the break, but it could have been even more with the talented attacker missing a second spot-kick in the dying minutes of the half and also had a header come back off the woodwork.

His seasonal league tally now stands at seven in 19 appearances and he has netted five times in his last five outings across competitions after also scoring in their BetMcLean Cup quarter-final triumph – against Newry – and last weekend’s narrow 2-1 defeat to Glentoran.

With talisman Matthew Lusty set for a spell on the sidelines due to injury, even more responsibility could be placed on Gallagher’s shoulders and McAree was full of praise for his young charge.

"He could have had five in the first-half! Ben is a talented boy and I've said that for a long time,” he told BBC Sportsound. “I signed Ben when I was here before.

"He has a lot of qualities - he's strong, good with his feet, knows where the back of the net is and he has a gift that he can create half a yard for himself and get a strike away.

"I'm delighted for him. He maybe went off the boil a bit for a few weeks, but he has certainly found form now and he's back to the Ben we all know and love."

After Ballymena United defeated Glenavon at Mourneview Park, Newry, who are searching for a new manager following Gary Boyle’s resignation, are now six points adrift at the bottom and a nine-point gap has opened up to 10th-placed Dungannon with 14 games to play.

The Swifts have won four of their last eight in the league and McAree dedicated the triumph to goalkeeping coach Alan Cooke, who lost his mother on Friday.

"It was important that we guarded against a response from Newry,” he added. “We didn't know if they would come and change their shape with a new man in charge, so we had to deal with whatever came at us.

"It was important that we started quickly, on the front foot and tried to break Newry down as quickly as possible - and we did. When we scored the first we managed to go and get a second and third and at that stage I felt we were in control.

"I was maybe a bit disappointed for the first few minutes of the second-half because I didn't feel we started it well, but then we get up the pitch and Kealan Dillon produces a great pass for Leo Alves and he puts it away for the fourth and that was the game over at that stage.

"It was a pleasing performance. Our goalkeeping coach Alan Cooke lost his mother yesterday so we wanted to send out a signal to him, give him a lift and I think we did that."