'We knew it was going to be a battle' - McAree

Dungannon Swifts manager Rodney McAree praised the battling qualities of his side after watching them overcome Carrick Rangers 1-0 at Taylors Avenue on Saturday.

James Knowles scored a late winner in a match which rarely rose above the mediocre in quality but saw plenty of endeavour from both teams.

"We knew it wasn’t going to be pretty, the overnight rain didn’t help, although the pitch was in tremendous condition so fair play to Carrick," McAree told BBC Sport NI.

"We knew it was going to be a battle and we had to fight for everything that we got and keep it tight at the back to give ourselves a chance.

"I thought there was always going to be one goal that decided it."

The Stangmore Park club has reacted to a three-game losing run by securing successive wins over Glenavon and Carrick without conceding a goal.

"It was important we got out of that rut of three defeats in a row and now we’ve kept two clean sheets and clean sheets win games.

"This season we haven’t conceded as many goals and that’s given us the chance to earn more points – we haven’t scored as many but as long as we’re not conceding we’re giving ourselves an opportunity to stay as close to the top for as long as we can."