McHugh assessing trialists with decisions expected to be made soon

Kevin McHugh has said that he and the club are still assessing their trialists after two pre-season matches against Premier Division opposition, but a decision will be made soon on them.

The Harps have had six players start over the last two games against Sligo Rovers and Galway United in the past week, who have been in on trial with the club.

And McHugh has got a good look at them in training and in the two matches, a 1-0 win over Sligo before Sunday’s 3-2 defeat to Galway, and decisions have been made.

“They’ve been in with us now for the last couple of weeks, and we’ll probably make up our mind in the next week or so, we’re going on a training camp for four days and we’ll hopefully announce before we head off.

“But a lot of the trialists have done well, they’ve shown up well, and it’s very difficult for them because the pitch is really poor at the minute and it’s really soft and doesn’t lend itself to any kind of football so it’s a different style of game that they’re having to get used to so we’re pretty happy with a lot of the players who have come in.

“Anybody we have coming in, they have to complement what we have here and even some of the younger boys coming in and making their debut this week, they don’t make their debuts out of nowhere. They’ve been training with us for the last while, my own boy (Odhran) has been in with us since September.

“They have to earn the respect of their teammates around them and the senior players before they get a minute on the pitch and they have been doing that, which is hugely positive.

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“The younger boys who were there last year are now a year older with another pre-season under their belt, and they look fitter and stronger and getting used to this level, so all that is priceless to us.

“It’s been a positive week with two really good games against Sligo and Galway that’ll set us up nicely for next week.

“We’ve made our mind up on a lot of them, but the registrations haven’t been through and that will probably be resolved by Tuesday.”