After enjoying the high of securing their spot in the Irish Cup final, Dungannon Swifts are back to business on Tuesday evening and manager Rodney McAree wants his players to embrace the challenge of creating yet more history by finishing second in the Premiership.

The Swifts are in the midst of a dream season, sealing a place in the league’s top-half for the first time in 15 years before following it up by progressing to only the club’s second-ever Irish Cup showpiece decider where they’ll meet reigning champions Cliftonville at Windsor Park on May 3.

With the riches of European football also on offer that afternoon, it’s a date all connected with the County Tyrone outfit have circled in the calendar, but McAree’s men face five Premiership post-split fixtures prior to making that trip.

First up, they host Larne – the current occupants of second, a position which guarantees a spot in Conference League qualifying next term.

placeholder image — Rodney McAree celebrates after Dungannon Swifts reach the Irish Cup final. (Photo by Inpho/Stephen Hamilton)

Dungannon, sitting in fourth, only trail the Inver Reds by four points and McAree’s ambition to finish as high up the table as possible remains undiminished despite Saturday’s semi-final success.

"We're four points off second, we've a good squad and a good group of players,” he said. “We will rotate and keep everybody fresh over the next five games...our sole focus is to win our next match and always will be.

"Let's enjoy this, celebrate this, and then get back on the horse and try to get a result against a Larne team that has picked up in recent weeks.

"They've hit second and will want to try and push on. While we are within four points and it's so close, we may as well challenge ourselves to try and finish second."

McAree will have to carefully manage his squad’s workload over the coming weeks ahead of the Irish Cup final – something which worked to perfection for their semi-final showdown with Bangor.

Having made seven changes for last Monday’s visit of champions Linfield, resting several key players, McAree made another seven alterations against the Seasiders, recalling the likes of captain Dean Curry, top marksman John McGovern and midfield maestro Gael Bigirimana.

"We did that on Monday night because it was a Monday and we were playing again on Saturday,” he added. “We took the likes of Bigi, Dean Curry, James Knowles, John McGovern and Leo Alves out and tried to protect them in terms of making sure we had everybody to select from for Saturday, not that all were guaranteed to play.

"We knew if we played them on Monday - if big Mitch (Andrew Mitchell) had played 90 minutes on Monday he might not have been an option to play on Saturday.

"We have to be selective and make sure come the final we try to have as fully fit a squad as we can."