Shiels believes Swifts are heading in the right direction

DEAN Shiels is confident Dungannon Swifts are heading in the right direction after his team posted their biggest win of the season against Carrick Rangers on Saturday.

James Knowles opened and closed the scoring with Marc Walsh and Rhyss Campbell also on target as Swifts swept aside an out-of-sorts Carrick at a chilly Stangmore Park.

Swifts have been playing some decent football of late and in recent weeks they have translated that upturn in fortunes into points on the board.

It was a second straight win at home for Swifts and Shiels believes things are looking a lot more positive than they were.

“There is good belief in there now. We have continuity in defence with having some stability with the personnel,” said the Dungannon boss.

“All over the pitch we look hungry and we now look like a team.

“We only have three or four less points now than we had this time last year and we finished ninth but we know it’s going to be tough, it’s tough slog and the aim is always to survive. We now have a wee bit more confidence which will kick us on for the second half of the season.

“There was a good desire to win the game. We have been playing well recently and today we got the performance and the result and that convinces people.“We have shown a lot of togetherness through a tough period and now we look confident and there is a good continuity with what we are trying to do.”

All over the park, Swifts had a number of top performers. Caloan Marron and Mayowa Animasahun were assured at the heart of the defence, James Knowles scored twice from midfield while in attack Ryan Mayse, Michael O’Connor, Rhyss Campbell and Marc Walsh all caught the eye.

It was a rare start for Walsh but the impish attacker stole the show with his pace and trickery on the left. He was a constant thorn in the side of the Carrick defence and Shiels is hoping there is much more to come from the diminutive wide man.

“There is no doubt about Walshie’s talent, he’s such a threat,” added Shiels.

“We set up to try and hit Carrick in transition in those wide areas with Rhyss (Campbell) and Walsh and there is no better player to have.

“It’s been coming for Marc. He started the season a wee bit slowly but now he looks confident, he looks fit and looks sharper. He’s a player I wouldn’t want to play against if I was a defender in the Irish League, he can hurt teams.”