‘My mind was made up on Dungannon’

Editorial Department • Published 12 Aug 2010 16:00 0 Comments

Share this

click to enlarge
Shane McCabe enjoys his goal against Glasgow Rangers at the Oval on Tuesday night. Photo: Presseye

Ryan McCluskey started his second stint at Dungannon Swifts last Saturday, coming on as a second half substitute in the 3-0 defeat to Newry City.

McCluskey signed a two year contract with the Stangmore Park based club last Thursday after being released by Portadown at the end of last season and he is pleased to have returned to the club.

“I’m happy to be back. I was disappointed at the way things worked out at the end at Portadown but it is good to be back at Dungannon. Before I even talked to other clubs my mind was more-or-less made up to join Dungannon,” said McCluskey.

He also believes that there is a good enough pool of players at the club to make a challenge for silverware this season despite having lost their opening game of the campaign.

“There is a decent squad and I think we would have a chance of winning something but we need to get a couple of results to get things going. On Saturday we gave away a bad goal but we did well in the second half although we got caught a couple of times late on. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season though,” he said.

Having played the second half last week, McCluskey will be hoping for a run out tonight (Thursday) against a Liverpool XI, and he will be keen to force his way into the manager’s starting line up on Saturday when they take on champions Linfield at Stangmore Park.

“There is no better than a game against Linfield to get things going. They set the benchmark and are a terrific side but we’ll be looking for the three points, especially at home.”

While McCluskey’s Dungannon outfit were faltering at Newry, transfer listed Shane McCabe was in the Glentoran line up as they hammered Lisburn Distillery on Saturday.

And the Belcoo man was in sparkling form on Tuesday night as he helped Glentoran defeat a Glasgow Rangers XI 2-1 at the Oval. McCabe opened the scoring with a cracking half volley while he then won a penalty which was converted by Daryl Fordyce in a man of the macth performance.

McCabe was placed on the transfer list last season due to financial constraints at the club but with no move having materialised he remains a Glentoran player.

“I was pleased to be in the team on Saturday and I’m happy at Glentoran but I’m still on the transfer list and I suppose you wouldn’t know what would happen before the end of August. If somebody came in for me then I would at least have the decency to talk to to them but as I’ve said though I’m happy at the Glens,” he commented.

McCabe put in a hard working shift for the Glens on Saturday as Daryl Fordyce stole the headlines with a five goal haul. However, McCabe is not about to get carried away with the victory.

“It was a good win for us although the scorline maybe flattered us a bit. Lisburn Distillery set their stall out and it worked for them in the opening 20 minutes but then we got a couple of goals and we went on from there. It’s good to win our first game but it is only early in the season and we won’t be reading too much into it. We’ll just be focussing on our next match against Coleraine and looking to get a result from that. They beat us heavily last year so we’ll be looking to put the record straight,” said Shane.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 12 Aug 10

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.