Kevin McHugh praises serious effort from players as Harps draw with Cork

Kevin McHugh praised the serious effort put in by his side to take a scoreless draw with Cork City on Friday night.

The Harps were heavy underdogs going into the game against the league leaders, who had only dropped points once this season in a Cork derby with Cobh Ramblers from their opening seven games.

The favourites for the league pressed for an opener, but from front to back, the Harps battled admirably and deserved the point.

“It was a serious effort that went into it,” Kevin McHugh said after the game.

“You’re trying to nullify a few threats, but after an hour of watching a video of Cork, you could spend all week trying to nullify their threats between wide areas, central areas, and centre halves, then obviously Ruairi Keating and Sean Maguire up front.

“We managed to keep Hans Mpongo quiet as well, and he’s having a fantastic season.

As a defensive group and the goalkeeper, they’re delighted with the clean sheet because not too many teams can keep Cork out for 97 minutes, so it was a really good point, and we’ll move on to Monday night.

“We had attacking players on to try and get them on the transition, and in the first half, Nathan (Lumingo) got in two or three times, but we just didn’t do enough to force their keeper into something serious. Conor (Tourish) had a great header in the second half, but the attacking players put in an unbelievable defensive shift, and it’s a credit to them and probably why we got the point in the end up.”

It was just a second clean sheet of the season for the Harps, and a second in as many games after the 1-0 win over Longford Town the previous Saturday, which was a second clean sheet in as many starts this season for Brazilian goalkeeper Lorenzo Piaia.

And it was the first time this season that the Turner’s Cross men hadn’t scored in a game, which was another positive for the manager.

“We talked about it over the last four weeks that we hadn’t kept a clean sheet in the first six games, and we wanted to get back to basics, and we’ve done that well, even with players missing. But you can’t underestimate players putting their bodies on the line and last-gasp headers. Some of Lorenzo’s saves, he was in the right place, and all of those things add up, and it gives you that heart to grow in the game.

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“We were splitting hairs at the start of the season, and Corey Sheridan probably had a better pre-season than Lorenzo. He had to wait for his chance, and he’s been professional about it and supported Corey, and he’s a really good character, so he deserves his plaudits over the last couple of weeks.”

And with the short turnaround on the Bank Holiday weekend, a trip to Bray Wanderers follows on Monday, before a home game against Cobh Ramblers on Friday, and McHugh is expecting to make wholesale changes to freshen up the squad.

“Bray are a very technical team and have loads of brilliant, dynamic players, and we will need to freshen it up. The players that were playing tonight will not be starting on Monday, and we’ll have to put fresh legs in because we have another game four days after that against Cobh, and we’ll have to manage everything.

“You have half an eye, depending on the scoreline, towards Monday night, but we’ll freshen up on Monday night and go down to Bray, who I’m sure will have to make changes as well.

“It’s one of those where we had to risk players carrying knocks, and it could have backfired, and thankfully it didn’t, so it’s a good point, and if we go on the road and continue that good run we’ve had on the road and try to get three points.

“We have options, and we have people coming back. Max (Hutchison) is nearly there, and Aaron (McLaughlin) got a tweak, and he should be back in a couple of weeks. Darragh Coyle is looking really good, and Corey (Sheridan) will hopefully not be long, so we have people breathing down the neck of people on the pitch, and that drives people on.”