Hectic schedule as Finn Harps head for Kerry but no excuses from boss Kevin McHugh

Kevin McHugh and his Finn Harps side go away to Kerry on Friday night as they look to bounce back from Monday’s disappointment at home to Bray Wanderers.

The hosts had deservingly led at the break in the Bank Holiday Monday clash thanks to captain Tony McNamee, and things got even better when a Jamie Duggan own goal seven minutes after the restart doubled that advantage.

READ NEXT: Late, late drama sees Bray Wanderers share the spoils with Finn Harps

Bray pulled one back through Paul Murphy on 70 minutes and despite the visitors turning the screw down the stretch, Harps seemed like they were just about to hold on for three big points.

But a late Bray corner from Max Murphy was glanced home by Cian Curtis. That came eight minutes into the red, and even though six had originally been signalled, McHugh refused to clutch at that straw when giving his thoughts after.

Bray opened the evening joint second in the First Division standings and while a split of the spoils might have appeared a decent result on paper, given what had just unfolded, it felt very much like two points squandered in the immediate aftermath.

Attention now turns to the long trek south and against a side locked level on points with Harps in seventh spot.

The Ballybofey outfit will once again make the 820km round trip to Tralee, with no overnight stay, and that grind is something that detractors sometimes just don’t appreciate when it comes to gauging the time and effort that goes into representing Harps at this moment in time.

“It’s tough,” McHugh explained. “The bus got back here at 3.30am last Saturday morning (after Wexford) and the boys, I don’t know how much sleep they got but they were back in here for recovery on Sunday.

“And we’re back out here this evening for Bray. Tuesday will be recovery again and then they’ll train Wednesday.

“We’ll take Thursday off but then it’s back on that bus to Kerry, that’s six and a half hours one way, and we’ll then look to get a result down there.

“It’ll be recovery all over again on the Saturday morning. It’s tough on bodies as we are part-time players.

 It’s the third time in a row where the FAI has decided, on the Bank Holiday weekend, to throw two away fixtures either side of a home game our way.

 “We just hope now we don’t pick up injuries in the middle of all of this.”

Meanwhile, McHugh admits that Monday night’s 2-2 draw with Bray felt like a defeat simply because of the way the hosts let a two-goal second-half lead slip.

“It was a very hard one to take,” McHugh told DonegalLive. “The referee had the whistle in his mouth there and was ready to blow.

“It was a poor clearance from us - a tired, lazy kind of one that went out for a corner. And that was two set plays this evening we were outdone by.

“You don’t deserve to win games, giving away corners like that cheaply. We’ve been really solid in those types of situations recently so that makes it extra disappointing.

“It’s something we’re going to have to look at. You have to defend right until the end. And we didn’t this evening.”

Six minutes had originally been flashed on the fourth official’s board in Ballybofey and while eight were played, they probably were justified given the number of stoppages over the course of the second half and, then, in that original period of time added on.

“I don’t know did he add on an extra minute or two for the goalkeeper being down. I’m not too sure.

“I can’t really criticise the referee for that. I thought we did enough to win the game. We just needed to be calm, in that final period, not panic.

“We were superb in the first half and there were times we looked tired in the second. But it looked like we were going to hold on.

“But that very much feels like two points dropped. I felt we deserved a point down in Wexford last time out. This? This feels like two points that have fallen by the wayside.

“But we’ll get back at it. There are still enough games and enough points to play for to challenge for a play-off spot.”