Rodney McAree wants his Dungannon Swifts squad to compete as they travel to Coleraine this afternoon as Bannsiders boss Oran Kearney urges his troops to 'finish the job' by securing a top six place

The Swifts are on the road this afternoon as they face a Coleraine side who know a win will cement their top-six status for the post-split fixtures.

Dungannon have lost their two Premiership encounters against Glenavon and Glentoran, which has left McAree scratching his head as to how they have suddenly under-performed.

"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 said.

"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.

"That's frustrating because whilst you might lack quality on certain days, you should always compete.

"I don't think we have to worry about looking over our shoulders.

"I don't think we're going to get caught so we may as well challenge ourselves.

"There was a large part of our performance that looked like an end-of-season game and it ended up a training ground exercise for Glentoran and that's a wee bit frustrating.

"Coleraine have turned a corner somewhat but they were always going to because they've got good players.

"We know we're going to be up against it this weekend and if we compete like we did today, we're in for a long afternoon.”

The Swifts announced the signing of midfielder Andrew Barrowman last weekend and gave him his debut in the 3-0 loss against Glentoran – with McAree explaining how he was made aware of the American's availability.

He stated: "I got a message saying he was in the country and he's a friend of Joe Moore.

"He appeared on our radar and trained two or three times and we saw enough to want to have a look between now and the end of the season.

"He looks like he has quality, he's a nice lad with a good attitude so we'll have a look over the next couple of months.

"He's from Boston, his last club was Michigan Stars and played for Airdrie at a stage.

"We wanted to have a look and it could be a case of finding a player for the next few seasons."

Coleraine drew 1-1 against Crusaders at Seaview last weekend in a match that was the tale of two penalties as Josh Carson's spot-kick was cancelled out by Jordan Forysthe's successful penalty for the hosts.

The Bannsiders will be without the services of Lyndon Kane after his dismissal against Stephen Baxter's side but the hosts will be able to call upon the services of Jamie Glackin who has returned from suspension.

“I think it’s vitally important we secure top six,” said Coleraine boss Oran Kearney.

“We talk about standards in the league and how tight of a race it’s been and big credit to a lot of the teams that are in and around that area.

“For us, with the form that we were in mid season and the players that were missing we were very much playing catch-up.

“We’ve done that in the last month or so but we haven’t achieved anything yet and ideally for us it's important we kick on now and finish the job.”