Rodney McAree labels Dungannon Swifts performance against Loughgall as "unacceptable"

​The Swifts had shown early positive signs against Larne and Linfield but a first-half Nathaniel Ferris strike and Jay Boyd’s debut goal handed Loughgall a two-goal lead with 21-year-old academy product James Convie pulling one back in the 74th-minute.

Victory helped move Dean Smith’s side into the top-half as their promising Premiership return continued but former Glentoran boss McAree was left scratching his head as to how his team produced the performance they did.

"It's massively frustrating,” he told the club’s media channel. “I thought we started the game reasonably well and should have went 1-0 up but we don't and it's as if when Loughgall score - I think they've had two shots and scored from both of them - that we've just quit.

"That's unacceptable.

"We all have to go away from the game and assess our own individual performances.

"I changed the shape - whether that had anything to do with the outcome I don't know but I'll certainly go have a look at it.

"Overall there are large parts of it that are unacceptable.

"There was such a lull in the game from our point of view and that can't be the case.

"We've had three very tough matches so far where we showed a real response.

"If we had have played today like we did in any of those three games we would have got something.

"It's disappointing because we came out of those games with a degree of optimism and seen a lot of effort and desire, but today has left us scratching our head a bit and it's back to the drawing board."

McAree has also called on his players to show a winning mentality and grind out results even when not at their best.

"It comes down to mentality a lot of it,” he added. “It's easy to get yourself up for the so-called big games but the big teams and the teams that want to win things have the mentality where they can get up for every game and grind out results.

"I think we have more quality than we showed and we were flat which is disappointing because there's a good atmosphere around the club and changing room."