Darren Murphy targeted by 'very personal comments' after loss in Kerry

Finn Harps manager Darren Murphy was subjected to personal abuse online last weekend.

Harps began their 2025 season with a 2-0 loss to Kerry FC on Friday in Mounthawk Park.

Murphy’s squad is much changed since 2024 with nine players having departed from the latter phase of last season and a largely youthful squad having been recruited for this year.

“There is stuff that goes online about the team I pick and football things - and I have absolutely no problem with that,” Murphy told Donegal Live. 

“Everyone has an opinion on the game and that’s fine. I understand that because I have been around the game for long enough. I do a job on a Saturday afternoon for BBC Radio Ulster where I give my opinion on a game that I am watching and the managers and players I am watching. 

“Anything to do with a game, I have absolutely no problem with. When it becomes personally about you as a person, where you’re from and this type of stuff, that - from a football match point of view - would be a red card.

“That side of it, I don’t get. If someone wants to stand and tell me they think I picked the wrong centre-forward of the wrong goalkeeper, or that I played the wrong shape, that’s fair enough. When it becomes non-football related and it becomes personal, that’s completely different.”

Murphy feels he was targeted by some “very personal comments” in public social media comments, while some even sent private messages to the Harps manager.

Murphy is operating off a modest budget and the losses of the likes of players like Success Edogun, Noe Baba and Matthew Makinson in the off-season essentially came down to Harps being unable to afford to keep them.

“I have a problem when people say where we ‘should’ be but they don’t understand where we are,” he said.

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“It can be a special place here, but we have to be realistic about the situation that we are in. I have every faith that good news is coming to the football club. It is maybe difficult to be a supporter of Finn Harps, but now is the time we need the supporters.

“I’m in this job because I get where we are and I will work with the committee. I get the circumstances that I have to work in because the new stadium is the absolute priority for everyone. People on the outside who look in and comment, I would encourage those people to come in and be on the inside and look out. I understand the challenges at the football club, I am willing to work with young players and work within the budget.”