Swifts sweep post-split fixtures to end season on a high

Dungannon Swifts ran out 3-0 winners on Saturday against Ballymena to mark their fifth straight win – becoming the eighth club in history to win all five of their post-split fixtures.

The club also recorded their fourth successive clean sheet, the first time they have achieved that feat in the top flight.
It has been a remarkable end to an at times inconsistent season under the returning Rodney McAree, and while they missed out on a European play-off spot, the mere fact they were in the conversation for it reflects a significant improvement on last year's relegation battle.

“Winning five in a row, I don't think we've done that since we came into the Premiership, so it's huge credit. I think we've kept four clean sheets in a row as well, which is great.” McAree told the club's YouTube channel after the Ballymena game.

“It gives us something to be positive about over the summer. It gives us something to focus on going into next season, and hopefully we can improve in certain positions, hopefully we can identify people we can come in – good characters who can help the group – and take the group that little bit forward as well.

“First and foremost every season this club has to try and sustain its position in the league and stay in the division. But once we achieve that we have to try and push ourselves a little bit more and we have to be ambitious, but it's very hard to be ambitious when there's a lot of money elsewhere. There's a lot of players that you'd love to have but you just can't afford them.

“The players that we have at the minute ate exceptional. They've been brilliant all year and I think a lot of all of them and hope they have a good summer.”

Read the full story in this week's Tyrone Courier