Dungannon Swifts may have fallen short in the Irish Cup final, but manager Rodney McAree is already looking ahead—and he's confident his team will bounce back.

In a thrilling showdown at the national stadium, the Swifts went down 3-2 to Coleraine, despite a gritty performance that saw them claw back from behind twice. A brace from Matthew Shevlin and a strike from Joel Cooper proved just enough for the Bannsiders to edge past the defending champions.

"We're devastated, no question," McAree admitted. "But it's an honour to be in this final, and we earned that right. Over the last two seasons, we've been exceptional—and I thought we were exceptional today."

Dungannon came flying out of the traps, with goalkeeper Ryan Schofield forced into a string of early saves to keep the Swifts at bay. Paul Doyle and Andy Mitchell both found the net to cancel out Coleraine's leads, but the crucial third goal never came.

McAree was quick to point out where his side fell short. "We need to be more clinical. When you get chances against the bigger clubs, you have to punish them. And defensively, we gave away three preventable goals—a mix-up, poor space management, and then selling ourselves on a diagonal ball. That's what cost us."

But there's no time to dwell on the defeat. The Swifts now turn their attention to the European play-offs, with a quarter-final clash against Carrick Rangers set for Wednesday, May 6. Win that, and they'll be just two steps away from securing European football for a second straight season.

"You can respond one of two ways after a loss like this," McAree said. "We'll respond the right way."