Ollie Horgan unsure where his future lies following Finn Harps' relegation

Ollie Horgan said “let’s wait and see” in regards to whether he will be Finn Harps manager next season following their relegation from the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division tonight.

Harps went 1-0 up against UCD only to lose 3-1 with Conor Tourish’s opener for the hosts at Finn Park cancelled out by an instant reply from Mark Dignam before two second half Tommy Lonergan sealed Harps’ fate.

Twelve months ago, following the final home outing of the season which brought a 5-0 win over Longford Town, Harps finished on 44 and in eighth place. Then, the exodus saw 11 players leave the club and for a while in the close season Horgan’s future looked in doubt. 

However, he muddled together a squad from here and there although this season has been poor in comparison, with Harps on 20 points and relegated ahead of their final outing of the campaign at Drogheda United next Sunday.

“This time last year I walked away and people on the board I admire and trust asked me to stay on and we always knew if it was about me then I’d be gone,” Horgan said tonight. “It’s never about me. Never will be. 

“Let’s see where the next week or so goes before we have any going away party or anything like that. I’m sure some people would love to see me go and there’s others who would like me to stay. There would need to be a fair bit of thinking. We were not hoping for that question tonight as we wanted to bring this to next week or even the play-off. 'Let’s see' is probably the best way of putting it.

Down and out as home loss to UCD relegates Finn Harps

A Tommy Lonergan second half brace, following on from a Mark Dignam wondergoal sealed a 3-1 win for UCD in Ballybofey against a Finn Harps side who had opened the scoring through Conor Tourish

“We’re 40 minutes out and we said we need this to go to the last game of the season. Unfortunately it finished in the penultimate game of the season. It’s raw and I’m hurting. I need to sit down and weigh it up.”

In regards to the loss to UCD, Horgan paid credit to his counterpart Andy Meyler and assistant Willie O’Connor from Buncrana as their side picked up seven points in their last three outings to survive until the upcoming promotion-relegation play-off at least. 

The Harps boss did say he was unhappy about the penalty against Tourish for handball that led to UCD’s third goal, which Lonergan scored, although admitted it mattered little over the grand scale of things. Following Tourish’s opener on 28 minutes, UCD were back on terms before Harps kicked the ball again.

“It’s tough,” Horgan added. “Mentally and physically it’s tough on the players and it takes a lot out of the management team too. We’ve had days like this. We’ve been relegated before and we’ve had brilliant days also. We try to win modestly and we’ll lose graciously tonight. I’ve nothing but praise for Andy and Willie and they’ve managed the game well and they’ve beaten us three times out of four.

“Of course we can blame the referee for the penalty - it was an absolute disgrace from Neil Doyle - but it’s irrelevant. I’m not taking anything away from UCD. That’s only a sideshow. All season we didn’t manage games well enough and UCD finished very strongly. They have decent experience with Jack Keaney, Sam Todd, Evan Osam, who has been in this league as long as I have been in it, and Michael Gallagher, who is a great bit of stuff. However, at 1-0 up we still should’ve managed the next five minutes, saw it through but we didn’t. We didn’t manage games all season.”

“Results don’t lie. There were several opportunities when we could’ve kicked on. We were 1-0 up away to UCD  and lost 3-1, we were one up in Drogheda and conceded two in injury time to lose 3-1 and even against Bohemians last month, we had a chance to get more from it.”

Horgan added that the way his squad fell apart last season, with offers from there and there attracting his players - citing last year's top scorer Tunde Owolabi's move to St Patrick's Athletic as just one example - should not be an excuse for the club’s relegation.

“I’m sure certain people are lambasting me,” he added. “We lost players at the end of last season but we couldn’t keep them. The board have upped the budget each year. When I came in here first, if you want to ask the likes of Keith Cowan, Mickey Funston and Ciaran Gallagher, ask them what they got. They got peanuts. At least now we can up it to a degree but it’s in comparison with the others. 

"We lost 11 players and then David Webster to a cruciate - that’s not me making excuses - and the likes of Tunde, we wanted him back. He got his wage tripled and we can’t deal with that. That’s not a criticism of anyone. Collectively we weren’t good enough and that’s from me all the way down.”