Dungannon Swifts F.C.

Dungannon Swifts
Full name Dungannon Swifts Football Club
Nickname(s) The Swifts
Founded 1949
Ground Stangmore Park
Ground Capacity 5,000 (350 seated)[1]
Chairman Keith Boyd
Manager Rodney McAree
League NIFL Premiership
2014–15 10th

Dungannon Swifts F.C. is a Northern Irish, semi-professional football club playing in the NIFL Premiership. The club, founded in 1949, has risen from the Mid-Ulster league to the top tier in Northern Ireland since its election to the Irish League First Division in 1997. Dungannon earned promotion from Irish League First Division to the Premier Division in the 2002/03 season.

The Swifts hail from Dungannon, County Tyrone and plays their home matches at Stangmore Park. Club colours are royal blue with white trim (home strip) and yellow with a red trim (away strip).

Dungannon have a mentality of developing future players from their youth system and deploying them into the first team at a relatively young age. The clubs' current manager is Rodney McAree, after the resignation of Dixie Robinson on 13 December 2011.

Club history

Club formation

The history of Dungannon Swifts Football Club began in 1949 with the formation of the club. The names of the founder committee members include Thomas Neill, Jimmy Sands, Maurice Graham, Alfred Burnett, Albert Kelly, George Richards, Albert Watt, Joe Meldrum, Jack Fowler, John Martin and Ben Clarke.

The early years

In the 1949–50 season, the Swifts won the Mid Ulster Shield on their first attempt. The following season, the Swifts made their entry into the Mid Ulster League. In the same season they made it through to the Alexander Cup, Foster Cup and Mid Ulster Shield where they landed runners up in each.

Promotion to B Division

After twenty years in the Mid Ulster League, in 1972 the Swifts were promoted to the Irish League B Division where they managed a comfortable 4th spot in their first season.

Stangmore Park

1975 saw Stangmore Park become the official home of the Dungannon Swifts Football Club when they bought the land from Courtaulds Ltd and erected a temporary wooden Social Club. The stadium holds around 3,000 people

Continued success

In the 1980–81 season the team had one of their most successful years ever and were crowned runners up in the B Division championship. The Swifts continued to show their dominance in the Bob Radcliffe Cup over the years but the 1987–88 season showed their skills in the senior Mid-Ulster Cup when they defeated Glenavon 2–1 to bring the trophy to Stangmore Park.

In August 1982, Dungannon Swifts officially unveiled their brand new club house. The purpose built construction replaced the old wooden club house and would provide an ideal environment for club and social affairs such as bingo, dances and dinners.

Senior status

In 1997, Dungannon Swifts achieved senior status on its election to the Irish League First Division.

Intertoto Cup

The club qualified for its first European games by finishing 4th in the Irish Premier League. They played Icelandic club Keflavík in the Intertoto Cup. However, they lost 4–1 to Keflavík and could not make up in the home game, leading to elimination in the very first stage of the Intertoto tournament.

Setanta Cup

Dungannon Swifts qualified for the Setanta Cup by finishing 4th in the Irish Premier League during the 2004/05 season. In the Setanta Cup following, Dungannon was playing in a group with Cork City, Drogheda United and Portadown and failed to qualify for the semi-finals as Cork and Drogheda grabbed the top two places. Drogheda United would later win the tournament, beating Cork City in the final.

Honours

Senior honours

Intermediate honours

† Won by reserve team

Junior honours

Current squad

[2] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
Northern Ireland GK Andy Coleman
Northern Ireland GK Stuart Addis
Northern Ireland GK Niall Morgan
Northern Ireland DF David Armstrong
Northern Ireland DF Dermot McCaffrey
Northern Ireland DF Dale Montgomery
Northern Ireland DF Sean McCashin
Northern Ireland DF Ryan Mullan
Northern Ireland MF Matthew Hazley
Northern Ireland MF Aiden Doyle
Northern Ireland MF Dougie Wilson
Northern Ireland MF David McCullough
Northern Ireland MF Terry Fitzpatrick
Northern Ireland MF Jamie Glackin
Northern Ireland MF Ryan Harpur
Northern Ireland MF Kris Lowe
No. Position Player
Northern Ireland MF Cormac Burke
Northern Ireland MF Marc McConnell
Northern Ireland MF Ruari McDonald
Northern Ireland MF Grant Hutchington
Northern Ireland MF Stefan McMaster
Northern Ireland MF Ronan Young
Northern Ireland FW Gary Liggett
Northern Ireland FW Cameron Grieve
Northern Ireland FW Alan Teggart
Northern Ireland FW Gary Ligget
Northern Ireland FW Paul McElroy
Northern Ireland FW Connor Mullan
Nigeria FW Abiola Sanusi
Northern Ireland FW Jamie Douglas
Northern Ireland FW Stefan Lavery

13 April 2012: In agreement with Rodney McAree, player-coach Darren Murphy won admirers for a remarkable act of sportsmanship, as he deliberately missed a controversial penalty in a crucial match against Ballymena United that they went on to lose 4–2. As it had been awarded in erroneous circumstances. It was widely praised during a time when money and winning has taken over the game.

Club staff

Current role Name
President David Flack
Chairman Joe McAree
Treasurer Paula Gallagher
Secretary Simon Graham
Bar manager Michelle Hegarty
Youth development officer Rodney McAree
General manager Joe McAree

Notable former players

Managers

References

  1. ↑ "Football Ground Guide: Stangmore Park". footballgroundguide.com. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  2. ↑ http://www.soccerway.com/teams/northern-ireland/dungannon-swifts-fc/1577/
  3. ↑ RTE

External links

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