Rodney McAree voices 'concern' over Dungannon Swifts' last two performances as Glentoran assistant manager John Gregg hails duo star quality in win at Stangmore Park
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The Glens were in total control in county Tyrone as first-half goals from Shay McCartan (penalty) and Junior had the visitors well on their way, before Niall McGinn struck just before the hour mark to make it a comfortable afternoon as new interim manager Declan Devine was watching from the stands.
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Hide AdIt marks a second successive defeat for the Swifts – after their 4-0 thrashing at Glenavon a week prior – and McAree is worried by what he has witnessed from his players.
"I think we got Glentoran on a bad day but I think they got us on a good day,” he said.
"Our last two performances have been way off the mark and been lacklustre which is a bit concerning because I don't know how we can go from looking like a really good team against Cliftonville to now looking like a poor team in the past two matches.
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Hide Ad"To be fair, Glentoran are littered with good players, they have quality throughout their squad but we haven't laid a glove on them today.
"We haven't competed well enough, we haven't got in their face, we haven't put them under pressure and we haven't worked hard enough.
"The fact we haven't worked as hard as we feel we should is probably the most disappointing aspect as that's the main basic thing you can get right when you cross the white line.
"I don't think we have done that collectively today.”
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Hide AdThe Swifts end their pre-split fixture schedule with an away day at Coleraine and he has called on his players to show an added “hunger” between now and the end of the campaign.
"We haven't been consistent enough but whenever we've been good, we've been really good and when we've been poor, we've been awful,” he stated.
"The one thing we asked them to do at the start of the season was to compete in every game we went into but in the last two matches we haven't competed.
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Hide Ad"That's frustrating because whilst you might lack quality on certain days, you should always compete.
"We haven't shown enough hunger and today we probably didn't look like we were together which is massively concerning because two weeks ago you think you have the players eating out of your hand, then two weeks later, you're wondering what's going on.
"We have to regroup, we have to go again and we have to go back to the basics of working hard and competing.
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Hide AdThe Glens were led by assistant manager John Gregg for proceedings and he was impressed by two members of the squad in particular.
He added: "It's been a tough week for everybody, including the players.
"You're coming here and you're worried about it being flat and all that goes with it, but the attitude of the players was absolutely excellent.
"I felt the performance was right up there.
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Hide Ad"The big thing for me was at the end when we were 3-0 up and we gave two chances away, but James Singleton threw his body on the line at the back post as we wanted to get a clean sheet.
"I always say you have to defend from the front and I felt we did that.
"I thought Niall McGinn and Shay McCartan were excellent in the wee pockets of three and they were allowed to move.
"Every time they got on the ball they caused problems and that's what you want.”