Dillon fires Dungannon Swifts into European play-off final

Dungannon Swifts claimed a place in the European play-off final by beating Cliftonville 2-1 at Solitude.

The sides had been deadlocked at 1-1 at the interval after Luke Conlan's goal for Cliftonville cancelled out Adam Glenny's opener for the Swifts.

However, Kealan Dillon's superb curling shot with 15 minutes remaining was enough for the Swifts to progress.

Rodney McAree's side will now face Linfield in Tuesday evening's final at Windsor Park with a place in the Uefa Conference League qualifiers at stake for the winners.

Dungannon survived an anxious moments in the early stages when keeper Declan Dunne raced from his goal to chase a long ball forward but Cliftonville striker Ryan Curran got there first and nicked the ball past the stranded keeper. However the defender Danny Wallace was on hand to clear the danger.

At the other end, Paul Doyle, fresh from scoring his first Dungannon goal in the Irish Cup final, tried his luck with a shot from distance which warmed the palms of Cliftonville keeper PJ Morrison.

Dungannon had two openings in as many minutes midway through the first half, firstly when Sean McAllister's volley from Kealan Dillon's diagonal pass was met with a sharp save from Morrison.

Seconds later, Corey Smith jinked his way to the bye-line before his cross-shot came back off the face of the crossbar.

The deadlock was broken on the half-hour mark when Dillon delivered an inswinging free kick from the left and full-back Glenny arrived to power home a header.

But Cliftonville were level just four minutes later when Keevan Hawthorne's initial corner was worked back to the youngster and from his second delivery, Conlan arrived to thump a header past Dunne.

Cliftonville had a chance to go in front five minutes into the second period when Josh Kelly flashed a low cross along the face of the Dungannon goal but Rory Hale, arriving at the back post, could only hit the side netting.

Dungannon grabbed the winner with 15 minutes left as Dillon took a clever touch to create space just outside the penalty area before curling a measured shot past Morrison into the bottom corner and set up a final showdown with Linfield.