IRISH LEAGUE: Dungannon Swifts boss Rodney McAree ready for Cliftonville threat

The Swifts have lost their last two league games to Carrick Rangers and Glentoran and McAree knows the Reds do-not lack firepower.

“They have Joe Gormley, Rory Donnelly, Jay Donnelly, Stephen Garrett, Daniel Lyons. The list is endless.

“They have a huge goal threat and they have players that can hurt you.

“But it is up to us to nullify that threat and create and take chances of our own. It will be a tough game but we want to take something from the encounter.”

And McAree says his side have been playing well recently but they have not scored enough goals.

“We have been playing some great stuff and passing the ball very well, but we come up short in the front third of the pitch. We need to find a cutting edge from somewhere and start taking our chances.

“If we can do that we will be fine.”

And the Swifts boss it was good to get a few players to extend their contracts this week.

“Christopher Hegarty, Douglas Wilson and forward, Paul McElroy all have extended their contract which is great news for the club. It is great that they have committed themselves as we can now build for the future.”

“To add to Christopher, Dougie and Paul signing new deals I’m delighted to add that we have signed Johnny Lafferty, a very talented player who I have always admired and will offer lots of qualities and options to the squad,” he added.

Defeat to Coleraine last weekend ended a six game unbeaten streak for Cliftonville but Barry Gray says his Reds are heading in the right direction.

“The Cliftonville of the first six weeks of the season is gone and won’t be coming back. Even if you take the two defeats to Coleraine as examples, our performance this weekend compared to the one in August was night and day.

“I always said we were a work in progress. That hasn’t changed and we know we’ll hit bumps like this along the way.”