Kevin McHugh says Finn Harps will ‘go for games’ after Wexford draw

Kevin McHugh has emboldened his Finn Harps to ‘go for’ games..

The Harps manager was speaking after Friday night’s 1-1 draw with Wexford at Finn Park.

Daniel De Lacerda’s 64th minute header put a point on the board for Harps, who might have earned the win following a series of chances.

Late in the night, the manager sent on attackers Nathan Lumingo and Odhran McHugh in search of a winner. 

“We talked about it in pre-season, we just drew too many games last year, and we made a decision as a staff and as players that even if it's one each, and even if we're against the odds, we're just going to go for the games,” Mc`Hugh said. 

“We tried to do that tonight, but it nearly caught us out, but in the end up, we'll take the point and go, because Wexford are a good side and they'll definitely be there at the top end of the league next year.

“We definitely looked dangerous and on another night, we could have got two or three in the second half. Sometimes we'll go for games, and I'm going to be standing here, and we've got caught by a sucker punch, and maybe losing the game, so be it, but tonight we just take our point and move on.”

Harps were slow to start and trailed when Jake Doyle headed past Corey Sheridan in the ninth minute. An at-first-lethargic Harps took until the half-hour mark to come to life. 

“Wexford no doubt about it, started the better,” McHugh said. “That first 10 or 15-minute period, they looked really dangerous on the counter. They were sitting on the mid-block, they counter-attacked us, which we didn't probably expect. 

“Three or four passes and they were getting in, and they were getting in too easy for my liking, and the ball was coming into the box too easy and we just didn't deal with it.”

McHugh praised the displays of full-backs Josh Cullen and Alex Fanle, adding: “I thought they controlled that area of the pitch and that's usually where we're very strong down the lines, and I thought the two of them came out on top there.”

McHugh has been pleased with the integration of the new players he brought to Ballybofey over the winter months.

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The former Harps striker returned his squad to pre-season training before Christmas and believes he is seeing the benefits.

He said: “The whole idea was getting them in early, and you can see they're starting to settle in much earlier than probably most other teams we knew players, like Alex is settling in really, really well, and (Perrrault) Tokam too and Daniel (De Lacerda) has settled in really, really well.

“Bernardo (Monteiro), who we've only seen glimpses of; he's a really, really good player as well, and when he comes good as well, he'll offer something.”