Horgan admits Harps ‘have to get something’ out of Derry fixture

As derby foes Derry City roll into town, Ollie Horgan insists that Finn Harps aren’t done yet.

Monday night’s 0-0 draw with Drogheda leaves Harps firmly in the battle to avoid the relegation play-off spot. With three games remaining Harps, who welcome Derry to Finn Park on Friday night (8pm), are in the play-off berth, a point behind
Waterford and five and six respectively off Drogheda and Dundalk, who have a game more played.

Daniel Cleary scored the only goal as Dundalk won the Louth derby last night.

“We have to get something out of Friday’s game,” Horgan said. “We certainly will have our work cut out. We need to score and we need to keep clean sheets. We’re not gone yet and we still have a fighting chance.”

Fourth-placed Derry, who are chasing points themselves in the quest for European qualification, earned a dramatic 2-2 draw at Waterford on Tuesday, Cameron McJannett snatching an injury time point for the Candystripes.

Derry will have Ciaron Harkin back from suspension for the trip to Ballybofey. While they didn’t quite do Harps the ‘favour’ their neighbours might’ve wished for, McJannett’s goal denied Waterford three points that could have proved fatal to Harps’ hopes of automatic survival in the top flight.

“Derry will be coming here looking to cement their place in Europe and that’s a good barometer of the task in front of us,” Horgan said. “Ruaidhri Higgins and his team have done a fantastic job since coming in and they added some serious quality to an already strong squad in the Summer window and so it’s no surprise that they’ve kicked on like they have.”

Harps have won just once in their last six league outings and didn’t trouble David Odumosu, the Drogheda goalkeeper, despite having the lion’s share of possession on Monday.

Horgan said: “We huffed and we puffed quite a lot. We didn’t do enough as regards opening them up from open play. Fair play to Drogheda, they have got a point out of it.

“We didn’t create enough up top. We turned them and got into areas, but the goalkeeper didn’t have a huge amount to do, despite us having loads of possession and I lost count of the number of corners that we have.

“We have no-one to blame bar ourselves. “We kept a clean sheet and it's been a while since we did so that’s a positive.”
Harps will be without Sean Boyd for Friday’s game against Derry after the striker was sent off late on Monday. Boyd was shown a red card after reacting when fouled by Gary Deegan. Adam Foley, Johnny Dunleavy, Shane McEleney, Ethan Boyle and Barry McNamee are doubts for Derry.

Horgan said: “It was quite petulant what he did. Whatever advantage we had at 11v10, that went out the window.”
Derry won 2-1 at Finn Park earlier this season, with Horgan’s team having won the previous fixture in the Brandywell. The sides played out an entertaining 2-2 draw last time out in the league with a Tunde Owolabi giving Harps a slender 1-0 FAI Cup win.

All four games this season have been incredibly tight with only a goal making the difference, if even, and we’re hopeful it will be the same come Friday and that we’ll be in with a shout with 15 minutes to go,” Horgan said.