Finn Harps to play two friendlies in England this weekend on pre-season trip

Finn Harps will travel to England later this week for a pre-season training camp featuring two friendlies.

Harps will play Bolton Wanderers reserves and Wigan Athletics reserves over four days in the Greater Manchester area.

Bolton Wanderers’ Sporting Director is Ballyliffin man and former Finn Harps player Fergal Harkin.

The Bolton trip is a part of a transfer deal done in relation to Jack Mawditt, who is expected to play on Saturday against Kevin McHugh’s Harps.

Mawditt joined Blackburn Rovers having spent some time at the Finn Harps Academy and in the summer of 2024 he moved to Bolton Wanderers.

Harps were entitled to training compensation when Mawditt moved to The Trotters and negotiated a sell-on fee and appearance bonus. Harps also secured a pre-season tour and this weekend’s voyage will only cost Harps the flights for the travelling party.

Harps will travel out on Thursday and return on Sunday, playing Wigan on Friday and Bolton on Saturday.

“It’s a couple of high-level games,” manager Kevin McHugh said after Sunday’s friendly against Galway United.

“When we come back, we’ll have another couple of games before we play Athlone on the 13th.

“We’re away to Sligo Rovers as well, and one thing we sat down as staff, we really wanted high level games this year to push the boys and test them. Last year we went into pre-season and didn’t get enough out of our games, and this year, we have.”

Finn Harps defeated Sligo Rovers 1-0 in Finn Park last Tuesday before a 3-2 defeat against Galway United in what was a quickly scheduled fixture after Derry City postponed Saturday’s proposed friendly at short notice, much to the frustration of McHugh.

“We’ll not come up against a team as physical as Galway in the First Division so it was a brilliant test for us, and fair play to them for coming up and fair play to John (Caulfield) for stepping in when Derry couldn’t fulfil the fixture.

“It was two days' notice, and it was Tiernan (Lynch) who requested the game, and then he phoned one of the people in the office to let me know that he couldn’t field a team, which is a crazy excuse at this level.

“It threw us off because we had no training. The facilities in Letterkenny were booked out, but thanks to John and Galway for coming up.”

The Tribesmen scored three second half goals after Max Johnston gave the Harps the lead before the half an hour mark.

Gavin McAteer then scored the goal of the game, but it would only be a consolation.

But the Harps used 22 players in the friendly in another good test.

“We had no game come Thursday evening when Derry let us down, but the fact that we got a game of Galway’s stature was brilliant for us, and it’s worth two or three weeks' worth of training with the physicality and skill level of Galway and their fitness levels.

“We’re a wee bit behind them obviously in terms of time and stuff, but I thought we put it up to them in the first half and there were loads of moments in the second half, bar the ten or twelve minute period where we conceded the goals.

“Unfortunately, Darragh (Coyle) picked up an injury, but hopefully he’ll be back on his feet in the next month or so, but there were a lot of positives to take from it.”

Some of those positives have come in the form of their trialists, with six players playing over the two games against the Premier Division sides.

McHugh has said that he and the club are still assessing their trialists, and a decision will be made soon on them.

“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 McHugh) 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.”