OLLIE HORGAN IS AGAIN attempting to master football’s version of square pegs for round holes.
The Finn Harps manager takes a threadbare squad of his promotion-chasing side to St Colman’s Park on Saturday night for a joust with Cobh Ramblers.
With just four games to go in the League campaign, Harps are sitting well poised to, at least, land a play-off spot.
Wexford Youths now have the title in their sights – although they do face UCD on Friday night at Belfield – and Harps’ aim in the next month will be to consolodate their place in the play-offs.
The tricky task of tackling Cobh was made trickier with the procession of one-game suspensions for Thomas McMonagle, Keith Cowan and Raymond Foy.
When Damien McNulty broke down at training in Ballybofey last Wednesday with a shoulder injury, Horgan must have thought he was cursed.
It means that three of his regular back four from this season – McNulty, McMonagle and Cowan – are absent – as well as Foy, who has been a contender for Player of the Season in many eyes.
McNulty has returned to his formiddable form of late and Harps have won just once this season when the Derry native has been absent, but it now seems as if his best chance of competitive action again this season is in the play-offs.
Packie Mailey hasn’t had a clean run since returning from a knee injury sustained at the end of last season.
The Convoy man has had calf trouble lately and was also out for over a fortnight with a virus. Needs must this weekend, though, and Mailey – who has started only five games this campaign – will be included at the heart of the Harps defence.
“It could be the making of Packie this weekend – and we certainly hope that it will be,” Horgan told Donegal Sport Hub.
“It might kick-start his season, but in fairness to Packie he probably would be in if any of the other three were available. He’s had a tough few months but he’s working very hard to get back at it again.”
Despite the run-in for home being upon him Horgan admits that the end-of-season targets haven’t been mentioned in the fortnight since Harps’ last game, the scoreless draw with Waterford United in Ballybofey.
He said: “We haven’t thought about targets now because we’ve been preparing for Cobh for two weeks. We haven’t said if it’s ‘must win’ or ‘must not lose’. I think if we get something form this weekend it’ll be a good return.
“There are a lot of risks involved here this weekend. We’re patching things up as best we can.
“It’s not ideal, but it’s all we can do. We’ve been looking at different formations and we’re having to look at players playing out of position.
“Maybe next week (when Harps host UCD in Ballybofey), we can look at the end of the season, but the last couple of weeks has all been about looking at a team for Cobh.
“Now, it’s a matter of getting out of Cobh with something.”
Although the week off because of the FAI Cup last weekend meant that the three suspensions come in the one game, Horgan believes it may well be a blessing in disguise at the same time.
He said: “The week off came at a good time. Had we to go last Saturday, it may have been too early to get structure on it. We have addressed that now to a fair degree.”
On Harps’ last visit to Cobh, it took a last-minute winner from Foy to earn a 3-2 win with Harps having trailed 2-1 as the game entered its final 12 minutes. Josh Mailey equalised before Foy struck the late winner.
Rob Waters netted one of the Cobh goals that night and he now lines out for Harps, although he heads into a meeting with his former employers – whom he left in mid-July – still seeking his first Harps goal.
Indeed, the goals by Kevin McHugh and Nathan Boyle in the recent 3-2 win at Cabinteely represent their only goals from open play in their last six matches.
“It’s quite simple: We need to score more goals,” Horgan said. “Away from home, it will be difficult, but we desperately need to score.”
Because of budgetary constraints, Harps will travel down on Saturday morning and return straight after the game.
Horgan said: “The players are so used to it now, I don’t think it’s an excuse. Ideally we’d go down on the Friday and have a light session on the Saturday morning, but the players are used to this now – we certainly won’t use that as an excuse if we lose on Saturday.
“Cobh will be a handful. Shane O’Connor, for example, is a class act and is playing well below his standard. Down there is a nightmare at any time, never mind when you have the troubles we have.
“I think Cobh will expect to win the game with the men we have out. It’s a place where the best team in the country could get overturned.”
With one foot in the play-offs, it would surely represent a disaster were Harps to slip out of it.
Horgan said: “It won’t be plain sailing, that’s for sure, but we just have to grin and bear it with what we have.”
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