Dean Shiels gave an honest assessment of his Dungannon Swifts side's 4-0 drubbing at Linfield on Saturday.
The Swifts found themselves a goal behind inside six minutes, and when the Blues added a third four minutes into the second half the game was all but over.
Shiels admitted honestly after the game his side had failed to "lay a glove" on their opponents, but he added their games coming up against Newry City, Portadown, Glenavon and Ballymena United are key for their survival fight.
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“We didn’t look like hurting Linfield all day,” he said.
“It was a poor performance. Linfield showed their class and their quality, they were too good for us.
“Conceding early in both halves gave us a mountain to climb. We needed to start well, we spoke about that before kick-off. We had a plan in place, but it didn’t work.
“We didn’t lay a glove on them, we had no cutting edge. But our season will not be defined by results at Windsor Park.
“We’ve games against teams around us coming up — Newry, Portadown, Glenavon and Ballymena — and they will now be key for us.”
Swifts woes were compounded late on at Windsor Park when Caolan Marron was sent off for bringing down Matthew Clarke.
“Unfortunately, we’ll not have Marron for a vitally important game," said Shiels.
"I don’t know if there was a covering defender or not. If not, it was a silly decision to make by Caolan.
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