‘Priceless’ England trip boosts Finn Harps ahead of First Division kick-off

Kevin McHugh says this weekend’s pre-season trip to England has been ‘priceless’ as his Finn Harps continue their preparation for the 2026 season.

Harps open their First Division campaign on February 13 at Athlone Town and took in two games in the Greater Manchester as part of their work.

Harps defeated a Wigan Athletic U23s side 5-0 on Friday and lost out 3-2 against a Bolton Wanderers U23s on Saturday.

The Bolton trip is a part of a transfer deal done in relation to Jack Mawditt, who joined Blackburn Rovers having spent some time at the Finn Harps Academy and in the summer of 2024 he transferred 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 was set to only cost Harps the flights for the travelling party.

“It was a really good weekend in terms of playing highly competitive games in a great football environment,” McHugh told Donegal Live.

“It was priceless in allowing the new players to settle into the group and also spending time in each other’s company.

“We have built really solid relationships with everyone at Bolton in the past few days and they are very complimentary towards the standards we bring and around a lot of our very talented players we have at Finn Harps.”

Bernardo Monteiro, a 26-year-old winger from Portugal who also played in America, started both games, while Perrault Tokam, a former Switzerland underage international, featured in both, including a start against Bolton and French defender Alex Fanle was in the starting line-up against Bolton.

Monteiro, Tokam and Fanle have all been unveiled by Harps, who also gave game time to Daniel de Lacerda and Temiloluwa Ajibola against Bolton.

De Lacerda was most recently with Al-Ittifaq in the United Arab Emirates while Ajibola landed in Ballybofey after a spell with SC Idar-Oberstein in Germany and both are also expected to be formally announced by Harps in advance of the new season.

Finn Harps 5 Wigan Athletic U23s 0

On Friday afternoon, Harps defeated Wigan Athletic U23s 5-0. 

Shaunie Bradley, Adam McDaid, Odhrán McHugh, Max Johnston and Joel Bradley-Walsh were on target for the Donegal side.

The starting XI included young guns McDaid, Bradley, Josh Cullen and Nathan McDaid, while McHugh came off the bench along with Gavin McAteer and Conor McGranaghan.

Finn Harps v Wigan: Lorenzo Piaia, Josh Cullen, Max Hutchison, Joel Bradley-Walsh, Max Johnston, Idir Zerrouk, Adam McDaid, Bernardo Monteiro, Shaunie Bradley, Oran Brogan, Nathan McDaid. Subs: used: Gavin McAteer, Odhran McHugh, Conor McGranaghan, Perrault Tokam.

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Finn Harps 2 Bolton Wanderers U23 3

McHugh’s team showed eight changes on Saturday as they played a Bolton Wanderers side.

Josh Cullen, Bernardo Monteiro and Idir Zerrouk kept their places in the Harps team as McHugh got minutes into plenty of his squad.

Odhran McHugh was again on the mark with a goal while Gavin McAteer also scored for Harps. It was the Milford teenager’s second goal of pre-season having netted in last weekend’s 3-2 home defeat by Galway United.

Finn Harps v Bolton: Corey Sheridan, Conor Tourish, Daniel de Lacerda, Josh Cullen, Alex Fanle, Perrault Tokam, Tony McNamee, Bernardo Monteiro, Gavin McAteer, Temiloluwa Ajibola, Idir Zerrouk. Subs used: Odhran McHugh, Nathan McDaid, Max Johnston, Oran Brogan, Adam McDaid.