OLLIE HORGAN assessed the hopes of Finn Harps at the start of the season and arrived at a quick conclusion.
Horgan observed that survival in the Premier Division would top the promotion-winning term last year.
Horgan was quick to get off cloud 9 after Harps overcame Limerick FC on that epic November night.
So swift was his comedown, he has never watched a re-run of BJ Banda’s header, a moment still being looped on the Facebook pages of many Harps supporters, seven months on.
In the weeks after the 2-0 win after extra time, the realities of the situation became apparent for Horgan.
“The general public expects us to go straight back down again,” he said, matter-of-factly.
“In fact, if we do stay in a full-time, professional League it will be a much bigger achievement than getting promoted.”
At the midway break, Harps are sitting in ninth position, nine points above the relegation places.
It has been something of a curious beginning to life back in the Premier Division, Harps’ first as a top flight club since 2008, although they have been more Doctor Jekyll than Mister Hyde so far.
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RESULTS
‘A brutal, mental start’ was how Horgan described a fixture list that handed Harps games against Derry City, Dundalk, Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers in the opening four games of the season.
When they were done, Harps had four points, three of them coming against Derry City.
Ryan Curran and Dave Scully scored on March 4 as Harps defeated Derry 2-1, the first time since 1998 that they defeated their bitter rivals in the League.
“It’s only a start,” Horgan cautioned that night amid joyous scenes at Finn Park.
“It’s three points we didn’t expect if we’re honest, but we’ll take it because we’re looking down the line at where the next three points will come from. It doesn’t matter where you pick the points up, so long as you pick them, up.”
Sixteen games in and Harps have 17 points, ever so slightly better off than the point-a-game target many feel they should have in sight to stay up.
Avoiding sliding into the relegation quicksands is the primary, in fact sole objective for Horgan and his players.
The train looked off the rails when a 7-0 defeat by Dundalk – Harps’ worst ever defeat in League football – was followed, not only by a 4-0 League loss to St Patrick’s Athletic, but also by an FAI Cup defeat at the hands of Leinster Senior League side Crumlin United.
And yet, Harps hit back to draw 1-1 with Shamrock Rovers and then defeated Sligo Rovers 3-0 in Ballybofey.
So, despite a record loss to Dundalk and in spite of conceding 12 goals in those games against the last four teams to have won the Premier Division, Harps emerged with four points.
It’s been that sort of season.
Friday’s win over Sligo was Harps’ first in ten games in all competitions, but was one that moved them well away from trouble. For now, at least.
All of Harps’ wins have come at home, but those four away draws at Sligo Rovers, Wexford Youths, Derry City and Shamrock Rovers are every bit as precious.
For a team that was expected to be gasping for air at this point, Harps have certainly exceeded even their own expectations.
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PERFORMANCES
Harps will make no apologies for their set-up and results have shown that they’re quite entitled to look down their noses at their critics.
While not setting the world alight, Harps have been effective and, for the most part, just how Ollie Horgan will have desired.
Those hammerings at the hands of Dundalk, St Patrick’s Athletic and the 3-0 loss at Cork City, when they were 2-0 down before they could find their bearings, aside, Harps have been quite competitive.
If the 1-0 loss to Crumlin in the FAI Cup was the nadir, then Friday’s 3-0 win over Sligo was certainly the zenith.
From the moment Seán Houston put them ahead in the 17th minute, Harps dominated and were rarely under pressure. Houston’s second goal followed Ryan Curran’s sixth goal of the season and the display was in marked contrast to what Finn Park’s frequenters had become used to.
Sigo found it nigh-on-impossible against Harps’ five-man rearguard and on the attack Harps always looked threatening.
Their biggest problem so far has been in creating chances. In a 0-0 draw against Bohemians, Harps hardly created an opening and would’ve paid the ultimate price, but for an injury time penalty save by Ciaran Gallagher.
Horgan knows his team’s limits, though, and by and large his team has been in the hunt in most games. Against Derry City, they showed real resilience to come back from 2-1 down to rescue a late draw at the Brandywell and the same in Sligo when Damien McNulty scored in the 1-1 draw.
The opening night win over Derry and the 1-0 wins over Bray and Longford also highlight how Harps aim to protect what they have without being over-adventurous.
If there has been one criticism of Harps so far it is for a lack of spark – something that wasn’t seen until Friday night.
But this, remember, is a squad that is on a shoestring budget of little more than €3,000 per week with some of their opponents going on four times that amount.
Horgan didn’t add any extra training session to his squad’s weekly schedule but has extended the length of their collective work. Harps are competing against some full-time outfits and it was perhaps noteworthy that a recent slump in form came during a busy period when they had five games in 18 days.
They went to Cork and back on the one day with their only overnight stay thus far in Wexford and one player, Ciaran Gallagher, lost his place in the team for the second game of the season, owing to his starting of a new job in Pramerica.
In that context, Horgan was perhaps right when he reckoned that survival would top promotion.
If they do that, the aesthetics of just how they did it will be the least of the manager’s worries.
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PLAYERS
So far, Horgan has used 24 players this season, the most recent of them the fit-again Josh Mailey, who made substitute appearances against Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers.
BJ Banda was the hero of the hour and the man of the moment last season after his winner against Limerick, but the Royal and Prior student hasn’t been in the matchday squad yet this campaign.
Banda could yet be elevated once the Leaving Certificate exams are over, but it is clear that Horgan feels that the Letterkenny is not yet ready for the demands of the Premier Division.
The Harps manager will be frustrated that he has yet to properly utilise Michael Rafter, the former Dundalk and Derry City striker who has been plagued by injuries in recent seasons.
Rafter played League Cup games against Cockhill Celtic and Galway United, but hasn’t made a League appearance, while Ryan McConnell – a former Manchester United Under-21 captain – played the same League Cup games and came on as a sub in the 4-0 loss to St Patrick’s Athletic.
Their futures remain unclear with Horgan confirming that he plans to make some alterations to his squad when the summer transfer window opens with a couple of players understood to be arriving on trial in the coming weeks.
Game time has been limited, too, for Matthew Crossan and Thomas McMonagle, although the latter has performed brilliantly in the last two games since getting a place back, showing the sort of form Horgan would demand from a player handed a chance to shine.
Injury ruled Sean Houston and Barry Molloy out for large swathes, but both have demonstrated just how important they’ll be in the engine room,
Last year’s player of the year, Raymond Foy, has been a bit-part player so far, too, but he has also been troubled by injury.
Veteran Kevin McHugh hasn’t started a League game despite calls from the terraces for a greater involvement for the Killea man.
It is with his goalkeepers that Horgan has the greatest dilemma. Richard Brush, a surprise signing in the closed season, stepped in when Ciaran Gallagher was unable to get off work for the Dundalk game in March.
The two have rotated at times since with the manager admitting on Friday night that he is still unsure as to his best option.
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CROWDS
Although a bumper 4,195 watched Harps defeat Derry City on the first night of the season, the numbers coming through the turnstiles have dropped sharply since then.
Only 420 saw the FAI Senior Cup defeat to Crumlin United, it was the previous week’s figure of 1,320 for the visit of Dundalk that was of more obvious concern.
On Friday night, an attendance of 1,671 was recorded against Sligo Rovers, but that number comes with the obvious cavaet that it included around 500 Sligo fans.
Harps have no home match now until July 8 when they host Galway United and the numbers are concerning the powers that be, who called a meeting last week to discuss fundraising options.
Harps’ away support has also suffered this season with efforts by the 54 Crew Finn Harps Supporters Club to run regular busses to away games failing to garner interest on several occasions already.
Only three times – against Derry, Sligo and against Shamrock Rovers, when 2,061 saw a 1-0 defeat – has there been more than 2,000 at Finn Park.
Strangely, Harps’ staying away from the relegation zone could have an adverse effect on the crowds and the finances.
Were they to maintain their position of safety, they could avoid an end-of-year survival battle, meaning there could be a dead rubber or two.
[adrotate group=”72″]MANAGEMENT
One of Ollie Horgan’s first tasks now is to find himself a new assistant manager following the confirmation last week that Gavin Dykes has left to take up the post as manager of Ballinamallard United.
Former Harps manager Paul Hegarty has been linked to the role and could return to the club he left in 2009.
Were Hegarty to take up the post – and nothing has been confirmed yet – he would be the third former Harps manager to assist Horgan following Dykes and James Gallagher, which is an interesting theme of Horgan’s tenure.
Some Harps supporters believe Horgan to be too negative and see him as a manager for whom the glass is always empty.
Horgan would rather see himself as realistic and he was sticking to his guns after Friday’s 3-0 win over Sligo.
“It doesn’t matter where you are now, it’s where you are at the start of November is all that counts,” Horgan said.
“There is no one in there getting too excited in there having won a game and no one got too down when we took a hammering against Dundalk.
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