Finn Harps boss Darren Murphy: 'We’ve come a long way in 12 months'

Finn Harps boss Darren Murphy

Finn Harps boss Darren Murphy Credit: Paul Dolan (ETPhotos)

Andrew Dempsey reports from the Carlisle Grounds

Finn Harps playoff hopes may be hanging by a thread, but boss Darren Murphy insists he is proud of his young side no matter how it turns out.

Harps must win their final two games of the season - both at home - against Wexford and Treaty United next week.

And two wins might not even be enough should fifth-placed Bray Wanderers win away to Cobh Ramblers. A draw might even be enough for the Seagulls given their far superior goal difference of +10 compared to Harps’ -1. 

But after a battling 2-2 draw away to Bray on Friday night, Murphy will be proud of his side regardless. 

“To be still there or thereabouts with two games to go is incredible,” he said. 

“They deserve credit for that and I’m surely not going to be hard on them because I asked them to come here, show belief and play on the front foot. They did that.

“We’ve come a long way in 12 months. There’s no question about that. There are some games we’ve won that we probably didn’t deserve to win and there are some games we’ve lost that we probably didn’t deserve to lose.”

He later added: “I don’t think anybody would have thought Finn Harps would have taken it to the last week of the season.

“To get to where we are is brilliant for us but we have to do the job on Monday night now to take it to the last night of the season. 



“If we don’t, I'm not going to be critical of this group because they have worked enormously hard all year and they have given us everything.”

Central to Harps’ competitive streak has been their home form, with Murphy’s young side picking up 29 of their 46 points from 16 league outings at Finn Park.

“The year before this year and the year previous to that, Finn Park was a place that everybody enjoyed coming to,” the Harps manager added. 

“This year has been a different animal for lots of teams and they’ve found it difficult and we’ve made it difficult.

“I would like the fans to come out in their numbers for the last two games. I would like them to drive the boys on to the final game of the season and if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

Harps however were handed a boost on Friday night with talented teenage goalkeeper Oisin Cooney starting despite being away on international duty with Tom Mohan’s Ireland under-19 set-up as recently as Wednesday in Croatia.



And Cooney showed why he was needed for the Co Donegal side with a string of impressive saves throughout the game at the Carlisle Grounds. 

“I’d like to thank Tom Mohan and the FAI for their co-operation,” Murphy said.  “Our goalkeeping situation means we are very short and to be fair to Tom, when we had the conversation he understood. He actually played on Wednesday for the under-19s. 

“Oisin is 17 as well so you have to be careful with him and we will be. We have a lot of young players who have learned a lot this year and to be fair, they are learning all the time but each and every one of them has contributed.”

Cooney and many others will be needed next week ahead of crucial ties against Wexford and Treaty United to finish the league season.

And it is far from ideal for Murphy and his coaching ticket to have three games in seven days to round off the season having recently gone a fortnight without a fixture. 

“We went 14 games without a game at the end of the season and we had already played a serious amount of games,” the former Finn Harps assistant concluded. 

“We have done a serious amount of travelling as well, 11,000km and the powers that be somehow found a way that we would go 14 days without a game. 

“You don’t even get 14 days off for the mid-season break. Somehow we are able to get 14 days off at the end of the season and then we have to play three games in seven days. It’s not ideal but I didn't make those decisions.”

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