Watch: McNamee: 'I thought I’ll just hit it as hard as I can'

Barry McNamee set Finn Harps on their way to a 3-2 victory over Sligo Rovers with a fantastic opening goal.

The Harps captain shot past Luke McNicholas from 25 yards on a frenetic night at Finn Park, where his side added to their home win over Drogheda United two weeks ago. In-between times, Ollie Horgan’s side lost 2-1 at UCD so needed an instant pick-up.

“I just got the ball and saw two or three men in front of me and thought I’m never going to outrun these boys so I thought I’ll just hit it as hard as I can and luckily it went in,” he said.

“The win was really needed. We let ourselves down badly last week. It wasn’t good after UCD. It means that it's between us and them for the relegation spots.”

Alexa play Rocket Man pic.twitter.com/vQrRqKpoRx

— Finn Harps FC (@FinnHarpsFC) August 19, 2022

Harps were two up at the break against Sligo, despite seeing their manager sent off, with Ryan Rainey adding the second goal. However, Aidan Keena’s goal on 47 minutes opened up the match again before Ryan Connolly made it 3-1 for the hosts from the penalty spot.

“We spoke at half-time at 2-0 up the need to go to get the next goal,” McNamee added. “When Sligo pulled one back at the start of the second half they scored from a great counter attack but we showed great reaction to conceding and made chances and got a bit of luck then with the penalty.”

Connolly was then dismissed for a second yellow and Keena from a Sligo penalty pulled it back to 3-2 late on. And although John Russell’s visitors did all the pressing in the bid to scramble a share of the spoils, Harps held out in front of goalkeeper James McKeown.

“We kept a good shape,” McNamee said of the closing stages. “We managed not to get cut open again, from 3-2 on and James made a couple of saves.”

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Harps have no fixture next weekend having already been eliminated from the FAI Cup and get back in action in September with daunting away trips to St Patrick’s Athletic and then Shamrock Rovers. Form at Finn Park will be vital.

“Teams were coming here and getting three points too easily,” McNamee said. “We spoke about that before the Drogheda game and again before the game tonight. When I played for Derry, and from talking to other fellas throughout the league, Finn Park was never an easy place to come and the atmosphere was rocking there tonight.”