Match Preview: Finn Harps vs Cork City

Cork City travel to Ballybofey on Friday night to face Finn Harps in the SSE Airtricity Men’s First Division. It’s bottom versus top at Finn Park as City aim to get back to winning ways following successive league defeats against Longford Town and UCD. Harps, meanwhile, will be hoping for a positive result to lift them off the foot of the table in Patrick McEleney’s debut in the dugout following Kevin McHugh’s departure earlier in the week.

Entering the final third of the campaign, the Rebel Army sit 14 points clear at the summit despite the two recent losses that end ended a run of nine wins, and eight clean sheets, in a row. While facing the team with the fewest goals scored and the most conceded in the division theoretically offers a kind opportunity for Barry Robson’s men to regain momentum, the long trip to Donegal has been a notoriously difficult challenge in the past for clubs across the country – as the City boss warned on the eve of the clash.

The Manager’s Words:

Looking ahead to the journey north, Robson anticipated “a really difficult game… they’ve got new manager going in, the pitch is tight, they’ll be coming after us.” The most important thing in his mind, however, was the necessity to “get back to keeping clean sheets first and foremost,” having leaked nine goals to Longford and UCD combined.

Reflecting on those games and what his team needs to put right, the Scottish manager acknowledged that the UCD performance was “nowhere near good enough”, whilst mitigating that “it was first time I’ve ever coached or managed in a game where we’ve conceded 3 goals from outside the box - that never normally happens in a game, three wonderful finishes from them. We’ve spoken in detail about if we can get out a bit quicker but sometimes you’ve got to give credit to them for the quality. But even without that, the other goals were poor from us, we went through them and showed the players the things that we need to be better at.”

Urging his team to guard against complacency given the extent of their lead at the top, Robson warned “football doesn’t work like that, you need to earn every single thing you do.

The players know it’s not been good enough and they’ve been told that. The last thing I’ll ever accept is complacency, so we need to make sure that we win the game tomorrow.”

The boss also confirmed that Seani Maguire should be back in action for the trip to Ballybofey having been absent since June due to injury.

The Opposition View:

Finn Harps approach Friday’s encounter in a poor run of form, winning just one of their last ten matches. A change in the dugout, however, could prove a reinvigorating factor for the Donegal men as Patrick McEleney makes his managerial bow. The Derry man has been appointed on an interim basis until the end of the season, having previously worked on Tiernan Lynch’s coaching staff at Derry City. Former boss and Harps legend, Kevin McHugh, will move upstairs into a technical role, the club confirmed.

Despite sitting in 10th place, their home form has been largely respectable, with 4 of Harps’ 5 wins this season coming at Finn Park, where they have amassed 16 of their 22 total points so far. City will be aware of the challenge ahead, having been held to a scoreless draw in Ballybofey in March.

When these two sides last met, the Leesiders ran out 4-0 winners at Turner’s Cross in late May, helped by a Ruairi Keating brace and a goal from Hans Mpongo – who scored eight times in his half-season at Finn Harps last year. The Dutchman, who is the league’s top scorer, will be hoping for a happy return to his former home on Friday night as he seeks to build on his tally of 13 goals and propel his team back to winning ways. Kick off in Finn Park is at 7:45.