Shared goals but one winner aim from clash between Irish League purists' football favourites

Dungannon Swifts and Cliftonville each aim to offer fans young squads full of attacking talent developed around a firm belief in a passing style as the path to victory.

A tally of four wins apiece from a double-figure number of Premiership outings to date, however, ​highlights a reality that returns have yet to consistently match the romance.

But Swifts assistant boss Dixie Robinson is keeping faith in an ethos shared by both clubs.

"To be fair, over a number of years now our games with Cliftonville have been easy on the eyes,” said Robinson. “Both teams like to get the ball down and play...I think there's a similar philosophy between the two clubs, even right through youth level.

"Both are coached to keep the ball on the deck and try and play and that's something we enjoy and obviously it's something Jim (Magilton, Cliftonville manager) enjoys as well.

"So games with Cliftonville are always good, they're always very competitive and there's a lot of good quality within both sets of players.

"It all makes for a very entertaining game...hopefully, on Saturday.

"Small margins.,,maybe somebody making a defensive error or somebody, on the flip side of that, doing something right out of the top drawer.

"Both teams have players capable of something individual.

“Us and Cliftonville, it normally goes tick-tock and end-to-end and a lot of good footballers on show.

"On any given day, what I've found over the years, is there's nobody can look at any game and feel as if we're going to guarantee three points as it's so competitive.

“We've all got big squads now (in the Premiership), there's a lot of good players about on any given day.

"If you're not at it you'll find yourself on the end of coming away without points...you have to try and be up and at it every single game you play.”

The Swifts’ response to shipping four goals on the previous Stangmore Park appearance – a 4-2 loss to Carrick Rangers – has been followed up by a league clean sheet with midweek cup wins either side all on the road.

“To be fair, up until the Carrick game, we were really, really pleased with how we had set up defensively and how we dealt with things,” said long-serving Robinson. “Last season, while we were really exciting going forward, we probably leaked far too many goals.

"We had worked very hard on it in pre-season...but we were very poor defensively (against Carrick).

"That (defensive strength) was something getting us a chance to win games...we were winning games maybe that we wouldn't have won last year because we had kept a few clean sheets.

"And that's vitally important.

"I think everyone would say we've got a bit of potency going forward and they know that we've got good attacking players.

"Up until that Carrick game, defensively we've been quite sound.

"We then played Armagh City in the Mid-Uster Senior Cup and kept a clean sheet, a clean sheet last Saturday and conceded one on Tuesday (both away to Bangor).

"So, hopefully, that side of our game has improved.”