McHugh hoping for home draw as Finn Harps reach last eight of FAI Cup

Finn Harps boss Kevin McHugh isn’t too fussed about who his side get in the quarter-final draw of the FAI Cup, but he’s hoping for a home draw.

The Harps came from behind early and scored three goals in the opening half an hour as they knocked Bray Wanderers out of the cup in Finn Park to reach the last eight.

And McHugh, who is still focused on trying to catch the teams above in the league and reach the play-offs.

Big hitters still remain in the hat, with only Finn Harps and Kerry making it through from the second tier, but the boss just wants to be the first name out of the hat for their next tie to secure a home draw, which takes place on Tuesday.

“A home draw, we do enough travelling and we’re the most travelled team in the country by a mile so we’d definitely just take a home draw.

“I’m delighted to have our name in the hat, we;ve been taking about it all week and the play-offs are still there, we’re in with a chance with nine games to go and five at home and we will throw everything at that, but it’s important to take advantage (in the cup) when you get a home draw.

“Bray are no mugs but I felt we were full value for the win.

“We showed real character when we went 1-0 down and I thought half-time came at a good time for them because I thought if it went any longer, we would have got a fourth.

“It was a really good reaction to going a goal down and I’m delighted for the group and the club to be in the hat.”

While the game itself was a well contested match, many players were given a hard task as referee Damien McGraith brandished a total of 14 yellow cards and one red card on the night for Bray teenager Billy O’Neill as the cards came out of McGraith’s pocket very easily.

Four Harps men were booked in the first half and left them walking a tight rope, and McHugh felt the referee made it tough on both himself and the players with the swiftness of how he went to his pocket.

“They do have an academy set up and I know they are trying to put in a structure to make referees better and give them more access to footage.

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“But I feel they are making it hard on themselves when they’re giving out yellow cards for tackles, and not every tackle is a foul and not every foul is a yellow.

“At the minute, they’re throwing out yellow cards for every tackle and if anybody goes to ground it seems to be a yellow card, no matter if they win the ball or not.

“We find that hard as coaching staff and we’re asking for answers and we’re not getting them.

“If there’s something in it that they don’t want us to go to ground, then we have to coach the team in a different way because we can’t have yellows like that every single game and it was the same down in Kerry.

“Then a player gets suspended and you miss them. We have a strong base of players and if someone gets an injury or suspension then we miss them.

“It’s not like we’re crying for no reason, we were handed four yellows in the first half and I;m not sure if even one of them is warranted.”

“It puts things on tenterhooks because we have our two centre halves and two centre midfielders booked within 25 minutes, so it’s hard.”