‘We will come good, but we can’t afford to drift away at bottom’ - Horgan

Five games in and still without a win, Finn Harps are not where they want to be. Monday night’s latest defeat to Sligo Rovers was Harps’ third in the five matches and despite watching his team play well, Harps boss Ollie Horgan was again struggling to take the positives from the result.

Horgan however, insisted that his new-look squad will come good. He only hopes that they can find a win soon - ideally away to Shelbourne on Friday night.

“From our point of view, we will get better and that’s not me buying time. I don’t want time,” he said. “But I do think we will get better, especially with the amount of new players from outside the country that we have. But we need to be in striking distance from the team’s above us at the bottom of the table by the time that happens.

Keena bags a brilliant treble as Sligo Rovers outshine Harps

Ollie Horgan's team - as has been a frequent occurrence this term - created plenty but were undone by three excellent goals from Sligo Rovers' Aidan Keena

“I’m not sure who’s going to be down at the bottom of the table. We know that we’re down there. We just just don’t need to drift. The last scenario that we want is what happened to Longford last year and while they fought tooth and nail and were a huge credit, we want to be in with a fighting chance and not to drift away.”

Harps travel to Dublin on Friday night to take on a Shelbourne team who can be more than happy with their return to the Premier Division - their draw at Bohs on Monday night another sign that their new manager Damien Duff is making a positive impact at Tolka Park.

Duff will for the first time, come up against Horgan on the sidelines in the Premier Division, and his team will include familiar faces in Mark Coyle and Sean Boyd, the latter scoring against Bohs on Monday night.

Boyd might have struggled at times during his two stints at Harps, but his goals in the latter part of last season were crucial. The lack of goals for Harps so far in this campaign continues to be a source of concern and the manager says that has to change quickly.

“You can go and argue as you did on Friday (against St. Pat’s)  that we played well and we didn’t take our chances,” Horgan said. “But here we go again. Same old story, it’s not good enough. We need to do the dirty part of it better, as we did in years gone by.

“We probably never had as much possession down here in years gone by but we got results with less possession. There’s no point in having loads of half chances and more possession without taking your chances, or defending them. They were three quality strikes but from our point of view I think all three, we should and could have dealt with.

“It’s disappointing that we didn’t defend and be more horrible to play against because we were probably very easy to play against tonight. We started very well, we had a few half chances and we’d a few set-pieces as well. If one of them went in, it would have been a completely different reflection.

“The first goal we could have weathered. The second goal killed us - a minute and a half before half time. They’re a handful. I think the key to them, which isn’t our worry, but to give them praise, they seem to have a bigger panel of quality players than what they have had.

“They always have had quality players, but they seem to have them in abundance which will probably see them through the season as opposed to them on spurts and runs."

Harps play Shelbourne on Friday night and then have two weeks off due to the international break. They play Shamrock Rovers next at home on Friday, April 1.