Rodney McAree praise for Dungannon Swifts star capable of 'something a bit special'

The Swifts have rebounded from Irish Cup heartache in impressive fashion, following up an opening 3-1 victory over Carrick Rangers by beating Cliftonville 2-1 in Saturday evening’s semi-final at Solitude, putting themselves within one match of a continental return.

McAree’s men took the lead through Adam Glenny’s header before Luke Conlan immediately responded for the Reds.

Dillon’s effort from the edge of the box with 16 minutes remaining ultimately sealed Swifts progression – they’ll now face Linfield at Windsor Park on Tuesday in a European shoot-out.

Former Warrenpoint Town midfielder Dillon has played a crucial role in Dungannon’s recent success and McAree knows he has the potential to change games.

"I don't think you can be anything but delighted,” McAree told the club’s media channel. “I thought the first 35 minutes we were very good, we played some good football, kept it nice and simple and we take a deserved lead.

"We concede a goal from a corner where they take it short, we switch off and lose our man.

"It was very similar to our goal and you're disappointed going in 1-1 at half-time giving Cliftonville a bit of a lift.

"Second half we came out and I thought Cliftonville were the better team, they looked fresher than us, which is probably rightly so, but we found a way of staying in the game, fighting our corner, digging in for each other, and in Kealan Dillon you have someone who can come up with something a bit special.

"It's a great finish from 22 yards, we get our noses in front and we dig deep.

"The supporters were absolutely fantastic, they stayed behind us the whole game, they sang their hearts out, which was fantastic and helped the players on the pitch to get over the line and get a memorable win.”

Dungannon have endured a testing schedule with Saturday’s match their third in a week and McAree could see signs of the physical demands taking a toll in North Belfast.

However, his side managed to dig deep as they look to seal European football for a second consecutive season – the Co Tyrone club banked €525,000 for last summer’s Conference League qualification.

"We got into good areas and probably needed to do a little bit more when we got in there,” added McAree. “We huffed and puffed a little bit in the final third but had done extremely well to get into those areas of the pitch.

"Cliftonville are a very good team, very well coached - Jim (Magilton) and Skin (Gerard Lyttle) do a fantastic job, they've very good players and we knew it was going to be difficult.

"I thought at stages in the second half we were dead on our feet, but we found another gear and got ourselves going again. We managed to grind it out."