Swifts being drawn into survival scrap: Lindsay
DUNGANNON boss Kris Lindsay has admitted that they are in a relegation fight — and urged his players to wake up to the challenge.
A sixth straight league defeat to Larne left them just six points above the drop zone.
With no sign of their terrible run ending — even against a side who played over an hour with 10 men — Lindsay’s fears are growing.
“We didn’t do enough to get anything from the game and that has been our story,” he said.
“It is one win in 11, which is nowhere near good enough.
“We are right slap-bang in the middle of a relegation dogfight, and people need to start realising that.
“The form needs to change soon.”
The winning goal came a minute into thehe second half.
C a o mhaha nn Mc G u i n n e s s played thehe ball across his back line,, not spotting the presence of Martin Donnel-Donnelly. He nippedped in, stole pos-possession andd scored.
By t h aa tt stage Larne werere down t o 10 menen after To mm a s Cosgrove’s s 26th-minute ute dismissal.
He clashed off f t h e b a l ll with Dylan King, resulting in a straight red card.
Dungannon, who t ook 10 points f rom t heir f i rst f our games, are now in a desperateperate run of forform.
Their last winwi came against Carrick Rangersers in SeptembSeptember.
With bottobottom club WarrenpoinWarrenpoint beatinging CoColeraine on Saturday,Sa t h e y wi l l quiquickly be susucked ininto the battle for ssurvivaal if it ddoesn’t cchange.
Lindsay (left) added: “We need to snap out of this, and snap out of it quickly.
“It doesn’t get any easier, we have Glentoran and Crusaders coming up, so we need to get refocused and we need to get going again.”
Larne, who were promoted last season, are sixth and have a seven-point lead over Ballymena in seventh.
Boss Ti e r nan Lynch was pleased with how his side managed this game, restricting Dungannon to j ust a handful of chances.
“A lot of people talk about Larne and the football that we play — today showed a different side to that,” he said.
“People like Mark Randall and Lee Lynch and Fuad Sule and Harry Flowers coming in and getting used to the league, they had to do things today that maybe they didn’t come to Larne to do.
“They are now really adjusting to that and I thought they were superb.”
Lynch was particularly impressed with how they overcame the loss of Cosgrove.
“I think it is credit to our players today that they were able to adjust, and adjust so quickly,” he added.
“T h e wh o l e g a me p l a n changed, what we had asked them to do, and what we had worked on all week changed.
“I thought they coped with it really, really well.”