Rodney McAree insists Irish Cup exploits have helped give Dungannon Swifts extra confidence
Dungannon Swifts manager Rodney McAree admits last season’s Irish Cup heroics has helped instil an extra sense of confidence within his side that they can compete for silverware success.
McAree’s men sealed the club’s maiden Irish Cup crown with a dramatic penalty shootout victory over Cliftonville at Windsor Park – glory which was combined alongside a joint-best Premiership finish of fourth.
Having endured a torrid start to the new season, losing each of their opening five league matches, Dungannon have turned a corner in style and have won four of their last five, including Saturday’s 2-0 triumph over high-flying Larne.
The Swifts begin their BetMcLean Cup campaign with a trip to Ards on Wednesday evening, and after getting over the line on the biggest stage last term, Dungannon will be hoping to make collecting silverware a more common occurrence.
This season’s BetMcLean Cup has an added incentive with the winner progressing straight to a European play-off final, putting them just one match away from the riches of continental qualification.
"It's a huge carrot,” said McAree. “We have to go Wednesday night and make sure we put a team out that can try to win the game.
"We know it's not going to be easy. It's a tough place to go and Ards are doing well too.
"I guess what happened last year gives confidence and belief that we can win these competitions. We believe in ourselves.
"We believe we can beat anybody on our day too if we're right at it. It's important that we keep those standards up, we can't let the standards drop just because we're going to a team in the division below us.
"We'll certainly not be showing Ards any disrespect. We'll be going there and fielding a team that we feel can go and compete and try to win.”
Dungannon successfully weathered an early storm and came out on the other side, scoring two or more goals in each of their last three matches while also keeping consecutive clean sheets for the first time this season.
They’ve now climbed 12 points clear of basement club Glenavon, and having enjoyed so much success last season, McAree feels it was only going to take one result for his side’s fortunes to change.
That came with a 4-1 Mid-Ulster Cup triumph over St Marys at the start of September and Dungannon haven’t looked back since with the only blip coming in a 3-0 home loss to Crusaders.
"I suppose you're waiting for a wee bit of luck to turn, just to try and get that result that you can build off,” he added. “The St Marys game probably came at a good time for us as well because it came off the back of the five defeats.
"That gave us a chance to go and win a match. So as soon as we've won that, it gives us a wee bit more belief and we've built from that as well.
"You need to be fortunate in this game as well, you need a little bit of luck.”