Dungannon Rovers boss Gary Maguire went through the full gamut of emotions during Saturday’s 10-goal thriller against Warren Young Men.
Dungannon edged a high-scoring clash at Drumcoo Playing Fields, eventually claiming a 6-4 win to ease 10 points clear of their rivals at the bottom of Division 3.
It was only Rovers’ third league win of the season, and their first in nine games.
And despite conceding four goals, boss Maguire was just glad to get over the line and earn maximum points.
“I suppose you could call it a 10-goal thriller,” Maguire told Match on Tuesday.
“It was nervy, but it was just good to get the win, to be honest.
“Going by results and watching Warren Young Men, it was one where we were thinking we could get something out of it.
“Before Christmas they were losing quite heavily, but I noticed that after Christmas their results were a lot tighter. And they drew against Castlecaufield last week, so they would have been buoyed by that.
“And I am sure they looked at our results and took some confidence from that.
“So it probably shouldn’t have been a surprise to see the game finish 6-4. There were plenty of goals in it, some of them I wasn’t happy with.
“But we had to win and we got the three points.
“It felt like a big game. They got their first point last week and they are bottom of the table. We aren’t too far ahead of them so we knew we needed a result.”
The game ebbed and flowed with Warren Young Men taking an early lead before Dungannon went 2-1 and then 3-2 up, but each time YM responded.
Rovers then edged ahead 5-3 before Young Men reduced the arrears once again, but Maguire’s players found another goal to seal the 6-4 victory.
“I could never relax during the game,” Maguire joked.
“It says a lot about my players that they dug in, and I have to give credit to Warren as well. They hung in there and made it difficult for us.
“So I am over the moon to have got the win.
“We do score goals, that’s not our problem. The issue is conceding goals, so that is something we need to brush up on.”
Maguire admits Dungannon’s Achilles heel this season has been their fitness, a problem compounded by logistics around player availability and lack of training facilities in their area.
“I’d say our biggest issue is fitness. If a football match lasted 60 or 70 minutes we would be a lot higher, but it’s a 90-minute match,” Maguire added.
“After Covid we lost a few players, and then there were players I thought were coming here but it never materialised. So our squad isn’t that big.
“And there are fellas who have family and work commitments so they can’t commit to every game, and sometimes it is difficult to get a team.
“We train once a week for an hour, and then you ask the lads to do some of their own work the rest of the week.
“If we were 100 per cent fit, I would expect us to give the majority of teams a game in this league. There are some teams are a step above in this league, but everyone else we would give a game.”
Taking everything into account, Maguire (right) admits his team deserve to be in the position they are in Division 3 –third from bottom with just Loughshore United and Warren Young Men below them.
“You look at the league table, and we deserve to be where we are judged on our performances over the 90 minutes. We definitely deserve to be where we are,” he added.
“If we were fully fit, I would expect us to be higher. So it is a vicious circle at times.
“Every club is looking the same time to train and there aren’t too many facilities. There are so many teams around Dungannon. And it is a cost thing as well, and a big commitment for a lot of the players.”
