Sean O’Donnell aiming to fire Finn Harps through end-of-season run-in

Finn Harps are back in League of Ireland First Division action when they face Cobh Ramblers on Friday night. 

Following their tenacious and encouraging performance against St Patrick's Athletic in the FAI Cup quarter-finals, boss Dave Rogers will be hoping they can bring that same effort and level of performance into their six remaining league outings. 

Despite taking an early lead against a side third in the Premier Division, two second-half efforts, including a controversial winner five minutes from time, ultimately gave the visitors a 2-1 win. 

Sean O’Donnell sent the old Ballybofey venue into a frenzy when he netted a stunning opening in what was a niggly and heated affair. 

But with the dust now well settled on that disappointment the Carndonagh teenager - who this week began life as a third-level Sport and Exercise student at ATU Donegal - explains that Harps can use last weekend’s experience as real fuel now.   

"The most frustrating thing is we saved our best performance of the season for a game against the best side we’ve faced,” he said. 

“If we can produce that in the First Division, we’d have a good few more points on the board right now. So it’s probably a consistency thing. 

“Looking at the sides around us, the teams we dropped points against, I’d say we could easily have another 15 on the board with what we produced last Friday. And Dave was keen to explain that this week”.  

Harps’ last league win came back in July, seven games previously. It’s been a tough number of weeks for the squad and their manager, but O’Donnell again references the manner in which his team went after Pat’s in that first-half period. 

And the direction, he explains, from the manager will be the exact same away to Cobh Ramblers on Friday night.

"It was brilliant to get off to that start. The great thing about Dave, just because it was a Premier Division team, he wasn’t telling us to sit back.

"We want to grab as many points as we can now in the last six games. Let’s aim for that and see where it takes us. It’s been a rebuilding season, we knew it was going to have real ups and downs"

The squad will depart for Cork on Thursday afternoon for what is a nine-hour trek by bus to Cobh. 

"We’ll travel down to Cobh and stay down the night before. So in terms of the game, it’ll have no effect. Nine hours one way, you just simply couldn’t do that on the day”. 

When the sides last met, mid-summer in Ballybofey, O’Donnell netted the winner in a 4-3 thriller on Navenny Street. But the pacey striker would settle for a 1-0 victory this time out if it meant taking three points back up the road. 

"I’m confident we are moving in the right direction, it will come together. The morale and the spirit between the players and the staff really is great. We just have to aim for a win now at the weekend - I believe we can go down there and do that”.