Irish Cup: ‘Once you taste success you want more’ – Dungannon boss Rodney McAree
After guiding Dungannon to their first-ever Irish Cup success last season, plus securing a top-six place in the league and European football, Swifts manager Rodney McAree does not give the impression of a man who is happy to rest on his laurels.
The Stangmore club’s 4-3 penalty shootout win over Cliftonville in the showpiece decider at Windsor Park last May sparked huge celebrations among all connected with the county Tyrone outfit.
Now the Dungannon boss is eyeing a possible retention of the trophy as his side prepare to begin the defence of the cup at home to Championship side Ards on Saturday.
“It’s exciting, it’s strange times for Dungannon Swifts to be going in as holders of the cup,” said McAree.
“We look forward to it, it’s going to be a challenging game, a difficult match, but one that we believe we can win, and we want to progress and we want to try and start to dream again.
“We’ll embrace the challenge. To win it last year was unbelievable, remarkable, but we want to try and do it again.
“Once you taste that level of success then you want to taste it a lot more than we have done in the past. We won the League Cup in 2018 and when you achieved that the next thing you wanted to win was the Irish Cup.”