Darren Murphy says a cross-border cup competition should be resurrected

Finn Harps manager Darren Murphy believes that room should be found in the calendar for a cross-border competition between League of Ireland and Irish League clubs.

Murphy's Harps drew 1-1 with Irish Cup holders Cliftonville in a friendly on Sunday at Finn Park.

The sight of a couple of hundred Reds' fans at Finn Park for a friendly match showed what could be possible.

“Where we are situated, it would help,” Murphy told Donegal Live.

“There is room for it because we only have the two competitions. They're doing it in the women's league and it seems to be a success.

“You can see what it would bring with crowds for competitive games. It would really add to the occasion. Cliftonville brought three buses here for a friendly. There aren't too many teams who would do that.”

The Champions Cup was played in 2019 with Dundalk beating Linfield. A competition was planned post-Covid-19-pandemic, but didn't take place and hasn't been staged since.

The Setanta Cup ran between 2005 to 2014 while the All-Island Cup for women's teams began in 2023 and involves 11 League of Ireland Premier Division and five Northern Ireland Women's Premiership teams with the teams split into four groups.

Cliftonville appeared in the final last year, losing 1-0 to Galway United.

Harps previously played in the Tyler Cup, which ceased in 1980 and they later featured in the Irish News Cup from 1995-1999, winning the competition in its final year.

Currently, clubs like Harps only play in the League and the FAI Cup with the League Cup not having been played since 2019.

Sunday's game saw Harps draw 1-1 with their Irish League counterparts as Luke Conlan came off the bench to level for Cliftonville after Sean Patton struck for Harps.

“Cliftonville are a very good side, let's not kid ourselves,” Murphy said.

“We're really pleased with it. I knew Cliftonville would keep the ball and move the ball. It was always going to be a good, physical work out.

“You can play 11 v 11 in-house, but they just don't have the same tempo. We went down to Cliftonville last year and got beaten by five (5-0). It was about a better performance and we did that.

“Cliftonville have a European game coming up so Jim (Magilton, Cliftonville manager) wanted a game to look at some things. The relationship that we have made it very easy because I was obviously going to try to help out my friend. It also came at the right time for us and it was important to maximise the chance.”