Kevin McHugh pleased to end winless league run against UCD with hard-fought win

After getting rid of an unwanted record in defeating UCD at Finn Park on Friday, Finn Harps boss Kevin McHugh was delighted with his side’s performance.

While McHugh led the Ballybofey side to a 3-0 win over the Students in the FAI Cup last year, Friday night was a first league win over the Dublin team in 14 league meetings, dating back to 2019.

Six of those games ended in a draw, with UCD coming out on top eight times, so the manager was pleased to get a first win of the new season and end that run of games without a win.

“Like last week, we had some really good moments in the game and some poor moments, and tonight I thought we patched more good moments together.

“There are a lot of players trying to settle into the squad and into Donegal and Ballybofey, and a lot of them are settling quickly. Any day you beat UCD is a good day because they are a dangerous team and technically gifted all over the pitch.

“I don’t know the stats, but I don’t know the last time Finn Harps beat UCD. It has been a while because they have been so good over the last number of years, so any points you get in this league are hard fought.

“I think this year is going to be much closer than any other league. The gap is really tight, and you’re going to get results all over the country throughout the season.

“So we’ll take the three points because we know how hard it is to get three points.”

Upon learning of how long it had been in the league, McHugh praised his squad who fought until the end and after over 100 minutes of football, kept batting to hold on to the win.

“I knew it was a while, and I know how tough it is, it will be a completely different game down there because they are such a good side.

“We knew it was going to be tough, we had a couple of bodies that we didn’t know who we’d have until Thursday night because there are so many people carrying knocks through pre-season. Max (Hutchison), I would say his nose could be broken so that’s the kind of spirit and drive of characters we need at the club.

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“It’s a credit to our staff because the fitness of the boys that are not playing, they’re topping up on everything they do, and they need to stay on their toes, and they were rewarded tonight with that performance and rewarded our staff for trusting them.

“We have a squad of 23 players, including academy graduates, and we’ll use them as we see fit. The pitch there is obviously really heavy, and people were dead on their feet in the last couple of miuntes then when the board went up for nine minutes, it kind of deflated the boys a bit.

“But we held out and thankfully got the three points.

“I know they can turn it on in a flash and the way the pass the ball in pockets and the players they have, they play with no fear because that’s the college football that they’re told to get out and play which can be dangerous but three points, we’ll take it and move on and we have been speaking about Cobh already and how we’ll use the squad.

“We don’t have a massive squad like other teams, and we’re not full-time like other teams in the First Division, so we need a togetherness and that helped us cross the line today.”

Shaunie Bradley’s goal gave the hosts the lead in the first half, but a sensational strike from Conor Tourish doubled their lead, and it was one that McHugh, who scored 186 goals in 438 games for Harps, would have been proud of himself.

“At 2-1 when they had a couple of chances, you’re thinking that goal deserves to win the game. To be fair, he does stuff like that in training, and for a centre half, he has unbelievable technical ability and vision.

“But even the audacity to try that, flick it over his man’s head, the 1-2, and then volley into the top corner, it was probably one of the goals of the season and worthy of winning any game.”