Last season felt like a deception on history: In three games, Finn Harps managed to take four points from their meetings with Derry City.
By Chris McNulty, Donegal Sport Hub
It was against the grain and certainly belied what had been the norm since Derry arrived into the League of Ireland in 1985.
When Derry first arrived at Finn Park for a competitive game – in December 1985 – 7,000 jammed into the ground on a day when Harps took in £12,000 in gate receipts.
The experience was a jarring one as Derry won 7-2.
It was the first installment in a catalogue of painful evenings for Harps against their bitter north-west foes.
Their problem for an age was belief. Or, rather, the lack of it.
Felix Healy, who has been on both sides of the north-west divide, tells a story from 2005 that perhaps sums up the fact that Harps have won only six times in 62 attempts against the Candystipes.
Healy was the Harps manager who, two nights beforehand, watched his team go down timidly against Derry at Finn Park.
Derry cruised to a 2-0 win and Healy was hurt by the manner of it.
‘How many people in here really believed before we played Derry that we’d win?’ Healy asked a group of 20 players.
His audience shuffled uncomfortably. Just two hands went up.
One was that of the 35-year-old Anthony Gorman and the other who believed was Michael Funston, then a raw 19-year-old.
The rest of a dressing room that was packed with experience kept their focus on the lino for fear of making eye contact.
“That is a serious problem,” Healy says.
“That is still ingrained in a number of people who will be playing and it has been a part of the psyche at Harps for many years.”
Harps’ return to Premier Division football last season was always going to be memorable, but the fact that it was marked with a rare win over Derry made it even better.
Ryan Curran and Dave Scully netted the goals as Harps won 2-1 – for only a second ever League win over Derry.
You have to rewind the tape all the way back to February 1998 when Donal O’Brien headed home a cross by Pascal Vaudequin to give Harps a slender 1-0 win.
Harps have won twice in the Irish News Cup and three times in the League Cup.
Harps’ first win over Derry didn’t come until August 1997 when a little-known Scot by the name of Sammy Johnston etched his named into Harps folklore.
Signed from Glenavon that summer, Johnston struck twice as Harps came from a goal down to win 2-1.
“A half-hit shot and being in the right place at the right time to slot it home,” was how Johnston described his goals in an interview five years later.
The history makes for grim reading from a Harps perspective.
Sean Houston headed home a dramatic equaliser last year at the Brandywell for a 2-2 stalemate and it was only the seventh time they’d managed a draw in the League.
Normality appeared to be restored when Derry won 5-0 in Ballybofey later in the season, but the two tribes go to war again tonight, at a new setting of Maginn Park in Buncrana, Derry’s temporary abode.
Both are in need of points. Derry had started the season in flying form, but the death of their captain Ryan McBride cast the darkest of clouds over them.
Having returned to action two weeks ago, Derry have lost to Bray and Cork, shipping six goals in the process.
Kenny Shiels’ team appear vulnerable – and Harps ought to fancy their chances.
The relegation battle, which Harps can expect to be involved in, has tightened considerably over the last couple of weeks and Harps could be doing with getting something from tonight’s derby.
Harps themselves have looped ropey in defence of late, even if their attack is a much-more potent force than it had been last season.
Paddy McCourt, who spellbound the Brandywell crowd before moving to Celtic in 2008, is now in Harps colours and it’ll be a big night for the ‘Derry Pele’ against his former club.
Derry are without Rory Patterson, Barry McNamee and Conor McDermott with Harps still minus the hamstrung Ciaran O’Connor and Danny Morrissey.
But Harps have shown – particularly in the recent 3-2 loss to Shamrock Rovers – a new-found ability to really hurt teams on the break.
Noel King – the current Republic of Ireland Under-21 manager – knew what these days meant having also been at both clubs.
“These are big games,” King said.
“You can feel the tension in it, whether there are 2,000 there or it’s a sell-out. That is the level of rivalry that is there.
“People elsewhere in the League, Dublin for example, don’t believe what it means up there. It’s a great football area and people are so passionate about their football.”
Maginn is sold-out tonight.
The atmosphere will be raw and the stage will be new: A perfect recipe for Harps to again free themselves from the shackles of history and defeat their fierce foes.
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