Swifts host first competitive game at new-look Stangmore

MICHAEL Ruddy admitted Dungannon have to raise their standards quickly after an opening day mauling by Crusaders.

The full-back branded last Saturday’s 5-1 defeat at Seaview “an embarrassment”.

He is demanding an immediate response when the Swifts take on Ballymena United this weekend.

It is their first home game of the new campaign – and the first to be played on their new 3G pitch.

For years the Stangmore surface was admired throughout the league – but it was ripped up and replaced over the summer.

While it should aid Dungannon’s passing style, Ruddy warned it will count for little unless there is serious improvement to the more basic elements of their game.

He said: “It is great that we’ve got a new pitch down, but if we don’t do the hard runs off the ball and the hard work for each other, that pitch means nothing, because we will not be able to get the ball to play the way we want to play.”

Ruddy was stark in his assessment after a sluggish, error-strewn performance was brutally punished by the Crues, with Ben Kennedy hitting a hat-trick.

Ruddy said they cannot afford a repeat against David Jeffrey’s side, who won 2-1 at Stangmore Park in the final game of last season.

“We were well prepared for Saturday, but we just let ourselves and everybody else down,” he said.

“It’s a killer blow – you look forward to the first game so much and you think you can go out and get a positive result, but it didn’t happen for us.”

He added: “It was absolutely embarrassing – it’s an embarrassment to the club, an embarrassment to your teammates, an embarrassment to the staff, an embarrassment to your own family who were sat watching you.

“It’s not good enough, standards have to rise and they have to rise sharpish.”

Dungannon were behind after seven minutes as Paul Heatley capitalised on a dreadful defensive lapse.

They were fortunate only to be 2-1 down at the break, but fell apart in the second half, losing 5-1.

Ruddy admitted the whole performance was not good enough.

“It was a bit of everything – mistakes, not doing the hard work, not tracking runners … every single player is at fault for that.

“It’s not just one individual – the whole team was off on Saturday,” he added.

“You can play good football all you want but if you are beaten 5-1 – I don’t want to be part of that, nobody in that dressing room wants to be part of that.

“It’s not who we are – it can’t happen.”

With Dungannon facing five of last season’s top six in the opening few weeks, it leaves them under real pressure to get a result this weekend.

But Ruddy said they have to approach every game with the right attitude.

“Every game has big pressure but we have to stand up, be counted and deal with that pressure. There is pressure all year,” he said.

“We just have to look to hopefully put things right and go and give a better account of ourselves.”

He added: “We know there are better teams, but that is still no excuse not to work as hard as those players.

“If we work as hard as those players, we have great players in our team too and we can hurt teams, but we have to match others’ hunger and desire off the ball.

“We have to improve the ugly side of the game, at least on Saturday’s showing.”