Finn Harps take on neighbours Sligo Rovers on Friday night looking to build on the point taken against Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght last Sunday.
That game was the first time Shamrock Rovers conceded in a game in which they scored this season, and also a first draw for Pat Fenlon’s men. Harps meanwhile ended a run of three defeats and no goals scored when Dave Scully’s third goal of the season was enough to secure a valuable draw.
Finn Harps FC now face a period of five weeks without a home game and have asked as many supporters as possible to make the effort to attend this game to help ease the pressure in that period. “It should be a beautiful evening, the pitch is absolutely pristine and it should be a good game and atmosphere. Coming along to Finn Park is the easiest way to help the club through this challenging period", said commercial manager Aidan Campbell.
“It was a point gained from our point of view,” said Horgan on the game in Tallaght, “The target is accumulating enough points to get into the play-off spot and that point is one closer to that”.
“We’ve had a few bad days in the last few weeks so we needed to change a bit and try to freshen things up. Our defending wasn’t always great against Rovers but it wasn’t as poor as in some recent games.”
“If Rovers had scored a second goal in the first half, and they may have deserved to, we could have been in for another tough day. But we hung on, we showed a bit of fight and got a result.”
“We knew we were going to be under pressure and were not going to have a lot of the ball. We got that bit of luck we hadn’t got in the last few weeks. We’ll take the point but we need to accumulate more to stay in this division.”
Sligo come to Finn Park on a great run having won six of their last seven matches, including away victories at the Brandywell and in Terryland.
“Sligo should have been out of sight by half time the last time we played them but we managed to get back into the game in the second half and were able to secure a good point” said the Harps boss.
“Our support was brilliant that night, we’d love to see a repeat of that sort of atmosphere from our fans on Friday night. Sligo are in great form- they’ve strung together a number of wins and are playing good football. They have some very talented players in their ranks and it’ll be another tough game, but we will prepare as well as possible and do everything we can to get a result” he said.
In that game earlier this season Sligo had gone ahead through a Chris Lyons goal on ten minutes, only to see their lead cancelled out by a stunning Damien McNulty strike in the 83rd minute. The game ended early due to floodlight failure and league authorities later confirmed the result would stand.
Harps have a relatively clean bill of health with Damien McNulty missing out through suspension.
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TEAM NEWS
Suspended: Damien McNulty
Doubtful: None
Injured: None
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RECORD AGAINST SLIGO ROVERS (All Competitions)
Friday’s game will be the 113th meeting of the two clubs, and the 60th to be played in Finn Park.
Total Games: 112 (59 at Finn Park)
Harps Wins: 45 (26 at Finn Park)
Rovers Wins: 38 (20 at Finn Park)
Draws: 29 (14 at Finn Park)
Harps Goals: 179 (100 at Finn Park)
Rovers Goals: 160 (79 at Finn Park)
LAST 10 GAMES v SLIGO ROVERS
06-Oct-04 Finn Harps 1-0 Sligo Rovers (First Division)
31-May-05 Sligo Rovers 1-0 Finn Harps (League Cup)
09-May-06 Sligo Rovers 1-1 Finn Harps (League Cup)
07-May-07 Finn Harps 3-2 Sligo Rovers (League Cup)
25-Apr-08 Finn Harps 0-1 Sligo Rovers (Premier Division)
19-Jul-08 Sligo Rovers 4-1 Finn Harps (Premier Division)
17-Oct-08 Finn Harps 0-2 Sligo Rovers (Premier Division)
04-May-09 Sligo Rovers 4-1 Finn Harps (League Cup)
27-Aug-10 Finn Harps 0-1 Sligo Rovers (FAI Cup)
20-Mar-16 Sligo Rovers 1-1 Finn Harps (Premier Division)
OUR LAST MEETING WITH SLIGO ROVERS
20th March 2016. Showgrounds. SSE Airtricity Premier Division.
SLIGO ROVERS 1 Chris Lyons 10.
FINN HARPS 1 Damien McNulty 83.
Sligo Rovers: Micheál Schlingermann; Tobi Adebayo-Rowling, Gavin Peers, Tim Clancy, Regan Donelon; Jimmy Keohane, Criag Roddan, Jordon Richards, Kieran Sadlier; Chris Lyons, Liam Martin.
Unused Subs: Ciaran Nugent (gk), Mick Leahy, Janaai Gordon, Raffaele Cretaro, Gary Boylan, Michael Place, John Russell.
Finn Harps: Richard Brush; Damien McNulty, Keith Cowan, Packie Mailey, Ciaran Coll; Dave Scully (Liam Flatley 80), Tony McNamee, Gareth Harkin (Kevin McHugh 67), Ethan Boyle (Raymond Foy 76), Adam Hanlon; Ryan Curran.
Unused Subs: Ciaran Gallagher, Ryan McConnell, Michael Funston, Matthew Crossan.
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FINN HARPS GOALSCORERS 2016
Ryan Curran – 5
David Scully – 3
Sean Houston – 1
Kevin McHugh – 1
Damien McNulty – 1
Ethan Boyle – 1 (in League Cup)
FINN HARPS RESULTS 2016
Fri 04-Mar Finn Harps 2-1 Derry City
Fri 11-Mar Dundalk 3–0 Finn Harps
Mon 14-Mar Finn Harps 0-1 Shamrock Rovers
Sat 19-Mar Sligo Rovers 1-1 Finn Harps
Tue 22-Mar Finn Harps 1-0 Cockhill Celtic (League Cup)
Sat 26-Mar Finn Harps 1-0 Longford Town
Fri 08-Apr Galway United 1-0 Finn Harps
Mon 11-Apr Finn Harps 1-2 St. Patrick's Athletic
Fri 15-Apr Finn Harps 1-0 Bray Wanderers
Mon 18-Apr Galway United 0-0 Finn Harps (League Cup) – Galway won 4-2 on pens.
Fri 22-Apr Cork City 3-1 Finn Harps
Fri 29-Apr Wexford Youths 1-1 Finn Harps
Fri 06-May Finn Harps 0-0 Bohemians
Tue 10-May Derry City 2–2 Finn Harps
Fri 13-May Finn Harps 0-7 Dundalk
Tue 20-May St. Patrick's Athletic 4-0 Finn Harps
Sat 21 May Finn Harps 0-1 Crumlin United (FAI Cup)
Sun 29-May Shamrock Rovers 1-1 Finn Harps
FINN HARPS REMAINING FIXTURES 2016
Fri 03-Jun Sligo Rovers (h)
Sat 25-Jun Longford Town (a)
Fri 08-Jul Galway United (h)
Sat 16-Jul Bray Wanderers (a)
Fri 22-Jul Cork City (h)
Fri 29-Jul Wexford Youths (h)
Fri 05-Aug Bohemians (a)
Fri 12-Aug Derry City (h)
Mon 15-Aug Dundalk (a)
Fri 26-Aug Shamrock Rovers (h)
Fri 03-Sep Sligo Rovers (a)
Sat 16-Sep Longford Town (h)
Fri 23-Sep St. Patrick's Athletic (h)
Fri 30-Sep Galway United (a)
Fri 07-Oct Bray Wanderers (h)
Fri 14-Oct Cork City (a)
Fri 21-Oct Wexford Youths (a)
Fri 28-Oct Bohemians (h)
Compiled by Aidan McNelis. Email: [email protected]
