Our changing room has no 'rotten apples', says Dungannon Swifts boss Rodney McAree as historic top-six schedule continues with fixture at Coleraine

The Swifts' eye-catching season has seen the County Tyrone side finish in the top-half of the league split for the first time in the club's history, as well as booking their spot in next month's Irish Cup final.

Dungannon's maiden appearance in Section A of the Premiership started with a 1-1 draw against Larne on Tuesday night as both teams netted own goals at Stangmore Park.

McAree's men continue their Premiership schedule away at Coleraine this afternoon, with the Bannsiders losing for the first time in seven matches against Glentoran through the week.

When asked about their involvement in the top-six, McAree replied: “Tuesday night our first ever game in the top six split and now we have another one away to Coleraine

“We've three home games on a wonderful surface, we go to Coleraine which is a wonderful surface and our other game is away to Linfield which is the national stadium.

“It's great to be involved in those games. It's great to be involved with the calibre of player that you're playing against, the pitches that you're playing on.

“It gives our boys a little appetite to improve themselves and try and prove a few doubters wrong maybe."

McAree believes having “a great changing room” has been the catalyst for Dungannon’s consistency this season.

"They've bought into everything that we've asked them all season,” the former Glentoran and Coleraine chief added.

“At times everybody expected us to fall away. If we went two or three games where we hadn't won everyone believed we were gonna hit a rut, that was us slipping out of the top six, blah blah blah.

“But they're such an honest bunch, they're such a together bunch, there's no rotten apples in the changing room.

“The changing room's a good place, it's an enjoyable place, it's an enjoyable environment and the boys are fighting and working hard for each other.

“As long as they continue to do that we'll always give ourselves an opportunity.”

Dungannon had an afternoon to forget in their last visit to the Coleraine Showgrounds as they were beaten 4-1 by Dean Shiels’ men.

However, they got their revenge against the Bannsiders in the sixth round of the Irish Cup as Tomas Galvin netted an extra-time winner.

"The first thing I said at the start of the season was we want to be competitive in every game we play and we've managed to do that relatively well,” McAree continued.

“We'll try and do it at Coleraine on Saturday which is a very tough game but it's one that we look forward to and we'll embrace the challenge.

"The day we got beat 4-1...we competed rally well but found ourselves conceding bad goals and found ourselves in a bad position.

“But it's a different game Saturday, it'll be a different set of 11 players on each team and we'll go and try and challenge ourselves to try and turn that around, though we know it's not gonna be easy.”