Waterford United are the visitors to Finn Park on Friday evening as Finn Harps look to continue their promotion push (kick-off 8.00pm).
Having returned to winning ways last week against Salthill Devon, Harps will be looking for another positive result on Friday against the men from the south-east.
“Waterford are one of the favourites to gain promotion this season and although they’ve had a poor start they have recently started showing signs of improvement by recording important victories,” said Harps boss Peter Hutton of Friday’s visitors to Ballybofey.
“Waterford possess a wealth of experience in their ranks and given their resources they have acquired a quality squad. But we will look forward to the challenge and realise we will have to be at our best gain a favourable result,” said Hutton.
Having lost their unbeaten start to the season in Athlone two weeks ago, Harps returned to winning ways last week with a hard fought 1-0 victory over Salthill Devon at Finn Park.
“It was important to get back to winning ways as it certainly boosts the confidence of players and maintains a positive mindset,” said the Harps boss.
“The game itself wasn’t great but when you come up against an opponent who is merely intent to frustrate and spoil and looks to free kicks and corners as their main means of scoring then it’s never going to be pretty.
“However in those types of games it’s vital to remain patient and take your chances when they arise, we did that to a degree with Tommy taking his goal extremely well and on another night we could have had a couple more but overall it was job done with another clean sheet being another positive.”
Harps were able to welcome back the injured trio of Tommy McMonagle, Sean McCarron and Ciaran Coll for last week’s game, but Hutton was quick to point out that their absence was not an unsettling effect or the reason for Harps’ two poor results in the previous two games where they picked up just one point.
“No I don’t think the team was unsettled at all, they were simply injured and that’s exactly the reason we have a very competitive squad. The starting eleven will continue to change over the course of the season due to injuries and suspensions and it is important that whoever is called upon is physically and mentally ready to hit the ground running.
“Players will be very disappointed not to make the starting eleven and even more so if not making the match day squad and whilst I appreciate the level of commitment being shown by each and everyone of the squad they need to understand that having a competitive squad is essential if we as a group are to be successful.”
Last weeks game means that Harps have now played all teams in the Division already. So how does Hutton rate his side’s progress so far?
“Our aim was to be a competitive force this year and given the results to date we have to be happy thus far,” said Hutton. “Of course there is room for improvement and we will continue to work hard on the training ground in order to progress but overall we are doing fine. So far I’ve been pleased with our home form but certainly the challenge is to improve results away from home.”
Hutton is hopeful that he will have a full squad to choose from on Friday evening, but he does have doubts over a couple of players.
“Since completing the game last week Tommy McMonagle is a real doubt as he has seemingly aggravated his foot injury once more and will require a further scan later this week to ascertain what is causing his discomfort.
“Damien McNulty has now picked up the flu bug that has been going through the team so he too is a doubt for the game added with the fact he is suffering from tendonitis to his knee.”
Although Harps are unbeaten on their last three visits to the RSC, Waterford won on each of their visits to Finn Park last season. This will be the 44th meeting between the two sides at Finn Park. Goals should be expected, as in the previous 43 meetings in Ballybofey only one game has finished in a scoreless draw – that was back in November 1981.
The earlier season meeting at the RSC between the sides finished in a 1-1 draw. Ben Ryan’s 19th minute goal opened the scoring for the hosts before Sean McCarron scored in the last minute for Harps to claim a share of the spoils.
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