Image source, InphoImage caption, McAree's Swifts won the Irish Cup for the first time last year
- Published8 hours ago
Dungannon Swifts boss Rodney McAree said it is "going to be extremely difficult" for his side to progress past Cliftonville in their Irish Cup semi-final.
The holders meet the Reds at Windsor Park on Friday in a game that will be live on BBC iPlayer in a repeat of last year's final which the Swifts won on penalties to clinch the Irish Cup for the first time.
With Larne or Coleraine to come in the decider if they get there, McAree knows his side face a tough task to retain the trophy, but he wants a big performance against Cliftonville to keep Swifts fans dreaming of the making that a possibility.
"If you don't win a semi-final you don't have those memories [of winning a final]," he told BBC Sport NI.
"We are as strong as we can be and we know whoever gets to the final from our semi-final is going to have a real big task in terms of winning the cup this season. There are four really good teams left.
"A lot of players and people around the club have really good memories of what we did last season and we want to give ourselves the opportunity of maybe dreaming of that again, but if we don't win this game we don't have that opportunity so full focus goes onto Cliftonville.
"It would mean everything to have a big day to look forward to, but it's going to be extremely difficult."
Cliftonville are aiming to reach a third successive Irish Cup final under Jim Magilton.
Winners in 2024, the Reds are sixth in the Irish Premiership table, one point behind the Swifts and former Northern Ireland international Magilton believes the two sides are "well matched".
"It's two sides that will go into the game full of great intentions to get to another final," he continued.
"We know and respect what Dungannon can bring to the game, they have many, many strengths and we've got to withstand that and we have to come out with the strength our team have."
