OLLIE Horgan says that he felt a ‘big gap’ between his Finn Harps and Dundalk, even if Harps did ‘have a cut off it’ against the Premier Division champions.
By Chris McNulty at Finn Park
Pat Hoban’s brace helped Dundalk to a 4-0 win at Finn Park last night as Harps fell to a second defeat of the season.
Harps had their moments, with Dundalk ‘keeper Gary Rogers saving well to deny Mark Russell at 1-0, while Kosovar Sadiki was denied by Rogers and a follow-up header by Alexander Kogler was cleared from the line by Sean Gannon.
“It’s irrelevant that it was 4-0,” Horgan said afterwards.
“Were they that much better? There was certainly a big gap. We had a cut off it for once, but we left ourselves a bit bare at the back. They might have found a way had we sat in.
“The better side won. The second goal, from there on it was going to be a long, long night.
“We had a cut off it. We lost 3-0 here last year and didn’t have a cut. We had a go and we ended up 4-0. We have no complaints.
“A couple of goals were individual mistakes, but they’d have come up with something else had we rectified that. They would have found another gear.”
A deflected effort from Hoban put Dundalk ahead after only three minutes and, just when Harps were beginning to come into things, Michael Duffy hit a second eight minutes before half-time. Hoban’s second preceded a late fourth by Greg Sloggett.
Horgan said: “The goals came at brutal times for us. we conceded early and then just before half-time when we were starting to gain a bit of momentum.
“It would have been interesting to see the second half if we had kept it at 2-0. They hit the post at the end to make it 5-0 and they were by far the better side.
“The players are disappointed to lose 4-0 at home, regardless of the quality of Dundalk. If they weren’t we might have another problem. They asked a few questions that we didn’t ask in other years, but the scoreline is still the same.”
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