Finn Harps will move their pre-season schedule up a gear on Friday night as they travel to the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium to take on North West rivals Derry City (KO 7.45pm).
Harps, who will have the services of new signing Harry Ascroft for tonight’s fixture, have had a mixed start to their pre-season preparations.
Victory at McSharry Park (Sligo) against Galway and a 2-1 win against Limerick was followed by a 1-1 draw against the Inishowen League in miserable conditions at Maginn Park on Tuesday evening.
One player Harps won’t have available is Scottish midfielder, Mark Russell. The trialist featured for Harps in a pre-season friendly this term but opted to try his luck at Derry City.
The 22-year-old was expected to play for Finn Harps in Buncrana on Tuesday but instead elected to play for Decky Devine and Co at United Park in the Candystripes 2-0 victory against Drogheda United.
Manager Ollie Horgan is expecting the Lone Moor Road side to give Harps a really testing time.
“Derry have a good squad put together at this stage so they will want to push on tonight with a good performance and result against us.
“It might only be a friendly fixture but we have to step it up a lot to match the quality that they have in the squad,” he added.
“It’s up to the players we use tonight to work hard as a team and see whether that is good enough to make us competitive against Derry.”
Elsewhere, Ciaran Coll is expected to feature against his former side since moving to the Brandywell club in December.
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