RELIEF was the overriding emotion in the away dressing room at Stradbrook.
Ollie Horgan saw his Finn Harps race into a three-goal lead by the 29th minute, but by the conclusion they were hanging on as Cabinteely hit back with two second-half goals.
Kevin McHugh’s brace and a third by Nathan Boyle left Harps seemingly cruising, but Karl Byrne and Conor Foley brought Cabinteely back into the game and the memories of John McKeown’s late leveller back in May for the Blackrock outfit were flooding back to Harps.
Picture caption: Finn Harps goalscorer Kevin McHugh in action against Cabinteely. Photo courtesy of Gary Foy.
“At 3-0, it looked like we were going to go on to win it comfortably, but that wasn’t the way it turned out,” Horgan told Donegal Sport Hub after the game.
“We were hanging on at the end.
“It was disappointing, our second half performance, but at the same time it was a great result.
“It doesn’t matter at this stage of the year how you play. You’d rather play poorly and win than play brilliantly and lose.
“There will be a whole lot of twists and turns yet. We know what’s ahead of us. We got over the line tonight and that’s all that matters.”
With five games to go, Harps are back into second spot. They’re six points ahead of fourth-placed Shelbourne while first and third, Wexford and UCD, have to play each other twice between now and the season’s end.
Horgan said: “Shelbourne haven’t gone away and they won’t be too far away. We could end up fourth, we could end up third, second or first, God only knows. All we’re looking forward to is Waterford on Saturday night.”
With the Republic of Ireland playing Gibraltar on Friday in the Euro 2016 qualifiers, Harps’ home game against Waterford will be played next Saturday night.
Listen to the full interview below …
https://soundcloud.com/donegalsporthub-club-notes/ollie-horgan-after-cabinteely-win
