Swifts swallow hard as final reckoning looms

Less than two years after they came within a penalty shoot-out of denying Linfield FC in the Northern Irish Cup final, Dungannon Swifts FC have five games to lift themselves off the foot of the table.

Agonising defeat
On 5 May 2007, the Tyrone team almost pulled off a famous upset when, having held Linfield to a 2-2 draw over 120 minutes of the cup final, they went 2-0 up in the penalty shoot-out. However, nerves and Blues goalkeeper Alan Mannus got the better of the Swifts and they went on to lose 3-2. Victory would have handed the club the first major trophy in their 60-year history.

New format
The Swifts are now bottom of the Premier League, three points behind Newry City FC, with only five games remaining. The league is on a break due to the forthcoming internationals and then the Northern Irish Cup semi-finals, but will resume after that with a new format, as the 12-team division has split into two sections of six teams.

'Mr Dungannon Swifts'
The Swifts also have a new management team, their third of this season, after Harry Fay's successor John McLaughlin was sacked and replaced by 'Mr Dungannon Swifts', general manager Joe McAree, and former player and coach Damian 'Dixie' Robinson. The new men in charge also know that they may not have have to move off the bottom of the table to survive.

Complicated scenario
Bangor FC have announced that they will not compete in the Premier League next season, so only one team faces relegation - and only then if the two second tier clubs with domestic licences fill the top two spots in that division, namely Donegal Cetic FC and Portadown FC. Even then the bottom club in the top flight would have to lose a promotion/relegation play-off to go down.

No comfort taken
However, McAree is taking no comfort from that. "People are telling us we'll survive because Donegal Celtic and Portadown won't finish first and second, but we can't take that chance," he said, adding: "It would be disastrous for Dungannon Swifts to go into a play-off because anything could happen in that situation. We can't take anything for granted."

Pretty football
The Swifts' fight for survival will start on Saturday 11 April with an away game against the team above them, Newry, and Robinson knows what is required. "It's not the time for pretty football," he said. "We need to fight and scrap for everything and keep the club up where it belongs." McAree concluded: "We've slipped badly this season, but hopefully we have enough about us to stay in senior football."