Kevin McHugh calls time on a truly remarkable career tonight at Finn Park, and former teammate Mark Forker reflects on the impact McHugh had on him and the rest of the squad during his time at Finn Park.
I was fortunate enough to play alongside Kevin McHugh for four and half seasons at Finn Park – and as much as it pains me to admit it now – he was a class act on and off the pitch!
It was late 2009, when word broke that Kevin McHugh was going to re-join Finn Harps for the 2010 season.
I had just completed my first season in senior football in 2009, in what was a difficult campaign for the club.
Due to budgetary constraints following a disastrous decision by the club to go full-time in 2008, Harps were forced to look towards youth in order to keep the show on the road.
That gave me an opportunity along with some other reserve players to make the step-up and play first-team football for Finn Harps.
It was a great honour for me to play for the first-team at Finn Harps, but the First Division was a hard school and an unforgiving environment for inexperienced players.
We were young players in a struggling squad that lacked leadership – and we bore the brunt of the fans frustrations.
Michael Funston, Conor Gethins and Shaun McGowan were top players, but they were all forced to take on senior roles despite being only in their early 20’s themselves.
Paul Hegarty resigned midway through the campaign, and James Gallagher took over as manager for the remainder of the 2009 season.
Former Harps player Mark Forker will remember McHugh’s many great attributes.
Gallagher recognized we needed more senior players with experience in the dressing room – and he issued an SOS for Kevin McHugh.
It was a huge signing, and one we badly required in order to help and guide a very young squad which was being asked to carry the can for the sins of a previous regime.
When the announcement of McHugh’s signature was made, it wasn’t just the fans that were delighted their prodigal son was returning home. I was delighted too!
As a youngster going to Finn Park every second weekend in the late 90’s and early 00’s – McHugh was the one of the best strikers in the League of Ireland, and he was attracting interest from Premier League clubs like Aston Villa, such was his prolific form.
He quickly became a Harps legend, and while fans were upset he moved to the Greyhound track for a few seasons, he was still revered around Finn Park.
Now I was going to get the opportunity to play with the legendary McHugh, but what was he going to be like to play with?
He was 30 when he re-joined, and things didn’t really work out for him at Windsor Park.
Was he past it? And was he a big-time Charlie like some players who knew him from his first spell at Harps were suggesting?
Well any reservations I had about him being a ‘big-time Charlie’ were immediately confirmed when he rocked up for pre-season wearing some outrageous clobber.
I was thinking, ah no, what’s this all about?
He had a big chain on him as well out over his top, and he looked pretty ridiculous.
He was 30 years of age, and he was dressed like a young cub, it was a bit embarrassing to be fair. 🙂
Mucker clobber we called it, stuff the Derry lads would wear, just really outrageous clothes, his cousin Gary Crossan was guilty of such crimes against fashion as well.
In fairness, McHugh did live on the border and had a successful spell at Derry City, so that affected his wardrobe decisions.
But it quickly became evident he wasn’t a ‘big-time Charlie’, and that he was far from past it, he was still a class act.
He may not have been at the peak of his powers, but he was still head and shoulders above anything in the First Division and in our dressing room.
What surprised me most was how good a football brain he had, I had thought he was just a speed merchant that played on the shoulder and always looked for the ball in behind.
He was like that in the early part of his career, but he obviously adapted his game, and he would drop into these little pockets of space and pokes holes in the oppositions defence with incisive passes. He was a nightmare to play against, and in small sides games in training – you always wanted him on your team.
His finishing was something else too, all he needed was a yard and he was lethal, absolutely lethal.
I never seen a finisher like him, and he scored all types of goals, tap-ins, headers, screamers, volleys, you name it, he scored them.
He had a massive influence on me, and he always encouraged me to get on the ball, be brave and to go out and express myself.
You had to earn his respect, and you wanted to earn his respect because he was such a brilliant player.
He was a great captain during a tough time for the club, we struggled and we lacked a couple of players to be really competitive in the division.
But he always led by example, and for me he was great, he was always in my ear to go and play and try to dictate games, and he’d always tell if you did the business, he was never shy to give you a pat on the back when you deserved it and that was important. I liked pats on the back. 🙂
He would also hammer you when you did deserve an ear bashing, and when he did have a go at you- you took it on board, because even if you didn’t like hearing it at the time, you knew deep down he was right.
He was very good in the dressing room and always looked out for us and stuck up for us if the club ever came to try and renegotiate wages midway through the season!
He was a great man on a team night out, and could look after himself, as was evidenced one night after an end of season party!!
We became great friends away from the pitch too, and I’ve no doubt he will be a top class manager.
I suppose the best story I can tell you about what really makes McHugh the player he is, is an incident at training in the 2013 season.
We had exited the cup to Drogheda and basically were playing for pride for the last few games in the First Division.
We were playing Wexford on the Friday night, and we were training at Finn Park on the Wednesday.
McHugh was suspended for the game, but after training he asked two of the reserve goalkeepers to stay behind for shooting practice.
I was stretching and I asked one of the other strikers at the club at the time why he wasn’t joining in with McHugh.
He said he was ‘resting his legs for the match on Friday.
I was shocked, this was a ‘striker’ that had scored three goals all year, and there was McHugh, 33 years of age, smashing ball after ball into the net for about twenty minutes.
The poor keepers were knackered.
Even after all the goals he scored, he never stopped working at what made him great, and that’s why tomorrow night the footballing fraternity in Donegal will come out to honour Kevin McHugh.
Myself, Jimmy Doc and Gary Whoriskey will have a cocktail in Dubai tomorrow night for you lad.
Back home, I hope Finn Park is packed tonight for him, he deserves it for everything he has done for the club – because it’s true what they say, there’s only one Kevin McHugh!
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