Search

06 Sept 2025

Adam McDaid, Corey Sheridan and Josh Cullen sign senior Finn Harps contracts

Harps manager Darren Murphy said: 'It’s always a brilliant day for a football club when you see boys come through your academy and come into the first team'

Adam McDaid, Corey Sheridan and Josh Cullen sign senior Finn Harps contracts

Finn Harps' academy graduates at their contract signing ahead of the 2025 season

Finn Harps have announced the signing of Adam McDaid, Corey Sheridan and Josh Cullen to senior contracts for the 2025 season.

McDaid first signed with the Finn Harps Academy’s U15 side in 2021. The defender, who previously played with Illistrin FC before arriving at Finn Park has come through the ranks at U15, U17 and U20 levels. The 18-year-old now signs his first senior contract ahead of the 2025 season.

Corey Sheridan will be a name familiar to supporters with the young goalkeeper appearing on the team sheet for the final six games of the 2024 season, deputising for Oisin Cooney. Sheridan joined the Harps Academy from Erne Wanderers and has represented the club at every age group from MU14s to the MU20s. The Ballyshannon local has impressed in preseason with an excellent penalty save at Dergview and recently attended an Irish Schoolboys Assessment camp.

READ NEXTPatten, Toland, and Barrett named in Ireland squad for UEFA Nations League campaign

Josh Cullen arrived at the club from Donegal Town, first lining out for the MU14 side. The defender has since played at MU15 and MU17 levels and after training with the first team during preseason signs his first senior deal.

Head of Academy Kevin McHugh spoke to club media: “The Academy graduate setup within our football club has been a huge success since its introduction a few years ago. The three boys have impressed the coaching staff in pre-season over the past 6 plus weeks.

The ability of all three is not in question, but each of them has that steely attitude and desire to be footballer and managed the step into a first-team environment very well. It should give further impetus to our U17 and U20s players to see there is a pathway for them at Finn Harps FC if they do the extras required.”

Great credit has to go to the coaches who have worked with these boys within our own Academy and their schoolboy clubs Erne Wanderers FC (Corey) Donegal Town FC (Josh) and Illistrin FC (Adam) respectively. 

Harps manager Darren Murphy added: “It’s always a brilliant day for a football club when you see boys come through your academy and come into the first team. Adam, Josh and Corey have all been fantastic these past few weeks and it’s great to be able to reward them with senior deals.

This is only the first step in their careers and the jump to senior football is significant but so far the three lads have handled themselves very well and are great examples to other academy players that the pathway is there for anyone who can step up to the mark.”

To continue reading this article,
please subscribe and support local journalism!


Subscribing will allow you access to all of our premium content and archived articles.

Subscribe

To continue reading this article for FREE,
please kindly register and/or log in.


Registration is absolutely 100% FREE and will help us personalise your experience on our sites. You can also sign up to our carefully curated newsletter(s) to keep up to date with your latest local news!

Register / Login

Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.

Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.