FINN HARPS MANAGER OLLIE HORGAN has reiterated his assertion that staying in the Premier Division was a great achievement than winning promotion last season.
Cork City’s 5-0 win over Wexford Youths last night means that Harps are safe with a game to spare.
Wexford are six points adrift of Harps and will play in the relegation-promotion play-off with Harps’ place in next year’s Premier Division now safe – a year after they overcame Limerick in the play-off to win promotion for the first time since 2007.
“I think it was harder achieved than promotion,” Horgan told Donegal Sport Hub.
[adrotate group=”50″]“It was a much tougher year for everybody. It took more hard work. Everybody was taken out of the comfort zone; the whole club.
“Look, at least we got over the line, with difficulty. It is a very good achievement by the players, but it was hard going.
“It’s a savage League and it is relentless. We are trying to do it part-time and that takes its toll. It’s hard going, but the players stuck at it.”
Horgan is the only manager in history to have both won promotion and subsequently stayed up with Harps. Harps’ previous promotions (2004 and 2007) were followed by immediate relegation.
[adrotate group=”80″]Twenty years ago, in the 1995/96 campaign Harps won promotion under Dermot Keely, but Charlie McGeever was in charge for the following season and Harps spent five campaigns in the top flight.
This season, Harps looked safe but were without a point for three months until the corner turned with a 0-0 draw in Sligo on a night when Raffaele Cretaro missed a last-minute penalty.
Horgan said: “The luck changed when that ball went over the bar.”
[adrotate group=”85″]The Harps manager says that he hasn’t yet spoken with any of his players about signing for next season but, with survival secured, that process will now begin.
He said: “We looked at Cobh and we looked at Drogheda, just in case we’d be in the play-off, because that is what we had to do. Today is the first day that we can say that we’re in the Premier Division and we can start to plan.”
[adrotate group=”38″]Listen to the full interview below …
https://soundcloud.com/donegalsporthub-club-notes/ollie-horgan-on-finn-harps-premier-division-survival
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