McHugh expects 'max one' more signing ahead of the 2026 season

Finn Harps boss Kevin McHugh doesn’t expect to make many more signings ahead of the 2026 First Division campaign, with a max of one more player coming in.

The Harps boss has nearly finalised his squad for the new season, which gets underway in less than a fortnight as they travel to Athlone Town on February 13.

Finn Harps confirmed the signings of Temiloluwa Ajibola, Daniel Lacerda, and Nathan Lumingo last week, bringing the new signings for the season to six, after the announcement of Bernardo Monteiro, Perrault Tokam and Alex Fanle the previous week.

That brought the squad number up to 21, after retaining Corey Sheridan, Lorenzo Piaia, Darragh Coyle, Josh Cullen, Conor Tourish, Max Hutchison, Joel Bradley-Walsh, Oran Brogan, Gavin McAteer, Shaunie Bradley, Idir Zerrouk, Aaron McLaughlin, Tony McNamee, Adam McDaid, Conor McGranaghan, Max Johnston.

Seven players left the club in the off-season, in Ibra Bangoura, Gavin Gilmore, Gavin Hodgins, Gradi Lomboto, Kieran Cooney, Daniel Cunningham, Michael Place, and McHugh has almost got the squad back up to that number of 22, but he doesn’t foresee many more coming in should another player join, with a trialist playing in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Sligo Rovers.

“There’s not going to be many more. We’re looking at options all the time but I’ve always stated that the people coming in have to complement the players we have here, the locals with the likes of Tony (McNamee) and (Conor) Tourish and then the Academy players like Adam (McDaid), Josh (Cullen) and Gavin (McAteer), all that stuff has to be right before we make any more signings.

“At max, there might be one more, but again that has to fit in with what we’re trying to do here because we have a lot of good people here and it has to complement the style we have. But if something arises, then absolutely we will take a look at it.”

Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Sligo in Ray McSharry Park gave McHugh a fifth and possibly last look at his side in pre-season action.

The Harps faced Sligo already at Finn Park, winning 1-0, along with Galway United a 3-2 defeat to Galway in Ballybofey, while they also had a 5-0 win over Wigan Athletic U23s, before losing to Bolton Wanderers U23 over a weekend in Bolton, where the side got to train at the League One club's facilities.

And McHugh has been pleased with the level of games they have had in pre-season.

READ NEXT: Instant impact: Sean Patton nets on Aldershot debut

“It’s the first thing we tried to address was that we wanted to put a harder schedule together and we didn’t want any easy games for the boys, and Sligo are a top side, with how they keep the ball and move it.

“They tested us in every single way we could have imagined and that’s exactly what we wanted in pre-season to see where the players are at.

“Fitness-wise, we’re not in a bad place even though we have five or six carrying niggles and knocks from the trip to Bolton, but that’s what you get in pre-season at times.

“We’re not going into the season with everybody 100% fit but hopefully we’ll have as many as we can.

“We pushed Sligo right up until the final whistle, and that's what we were looking for as staff.

“Sligo are in a different place to us at the minute in terms of staff, and they’re full-time, and you can see that with their physique. But that’s what we’re aiming for and trying to set that high-performance culture within the club.

“We had a lot of players getting 90 minutes tonight, so we’re really happy with that.

“Arranmore was brilliant in terms of team bonding and people getting to know each other and being in each other’s company, and it was the exact same in Bolton, the only difference was that we had loads of high-end friendlies, and we were in a full-time environment with the facilities, so that worked out really well for us.”