The Finn Harps U17s must win their remaining two Northern Section group matches to secure a place in the knockout stages of the national competition.
That was the frank assessment of their manager Declan Boyle ahead of their short trip to take on Derry City in a local derby tomorrow (kick-off 2pm).
“There are two matches left and we will need to win them both to guarantee a play-off position. Obviously tomorrow’s game is massive away to Derry City,” Boyle said.
“It’s a local derby match, where all the players know each other so well. So we are under no illusions as to the massive task that we face against them. Derry is an excellent team, with some outstanding players so we are going to have to play very well to get a positive result.”
Reflecting on the 4-0 win over Shelbourne on Saturday in Killygordon, Boyle said it was a very important result bearing in mind that all the other teams in contention for qualification won last weekend.
“Yes it was a good result last Saturday against Shelbourne. Overall I was happy enough. The performance was very good in the first half but the second half performance was sloppy, which was disappointing. We scored four goals again and didn’t concede any for second week in a row, which is very pleasing. Shane Blaney scored two and that’s four goals for him in three games. Niall McGinley scored two and his first was an excellent team goal.”
The U17 manager says the players are really looking forward to the first challenge of trying to bag the three points tomorrow afternoon.
He said: “The team is playing well and working very hard for each other and if we can bring that hunger, desire and hard work to our play tomorrow we shouldn’t be too far away.
“The players are really looking forward to the Derry match and it’s great for the players with two games left, that we have still the opportunity to make the top four in the Northern U17 League, which was our goal at the start of the season.”
