Gallagher proud of Harps display
Credit:
Finn Harps boss James Gallagher hailed the fortitude and application of his players following their titanic tussle with northwest neighbours Derry City in the Brandywell on Friday night.
Harps backed up their supposed pre-match hype that Derry manager Stephen Kenny had accused them of in the build-up to the game.
“They've certainly had plenty to say, but talk is cheap,” was the response from the City boss ahead of the game after certain quarters from Ballybofey had merely suggested their motivation for being involved in such a highly charged end-of-season encounter.
Yet it was Harps who stood up and were counted for, twice taking the lead and then nullifying Derry’s creative spark in the second half.
“The plan was to come in to compete and try and win the football match. Obviously, there was a lot of talk during the week, people were asking me did I want to come in and spoil the party on Derry. But it’s not about that at all, it’s a derby game and you want to come in and get a result,” declared the Harps boss afterwards in the pouring rain.
“Looking at the overall game, I thought we had a go at them, we didn’t come in to sit and hope for a draw, we came in looking to win the match. There is a lot of local pride and what not at stake and I’m very proud of the players. They showed themselves in the light that they maybe haven’t been able to do this season – to come in here in front of such a big crowd and the best team in the league and maybe we were a wee bit unlucky we didn’t get more from the game.”
With four goals scored in the opening half an hour, it was perhaps a little surprising the last hour of the game didn’t yield another couple.
“To be honest, I wasn’t too happy with it,” smiled Gallagher. “I wanted the goals to slow down a bit because I know the goal threat Derry possess. If goals are flying in from both ends – they’ve been scoring a hell of a lot more than we have – so I didn’t want to go tit for tat with them in that regard.
“We are a wee bit disappointed with the way we conceded. We know the threat (Patrick) McEleney carries, he’s cut inside and scored a good goal from his point of view, but it’s poor from us because we knew he’d been doing that to team’s all season.
“The second goal then, the defenders should be well aware that on a night like that you need to follow in and help out your goalkeeper so we were caught out with that, too. But then again our two goals came from free-kicks and from open play we didn’t create an awful lot.”
As it seemed, Derry looked like they would need all three points to prevent having to go to Monaghan needing to avoid defeat, so Gallagher’s side would have been right in thinking a second half onslaught was about to come their way.
In truth, though, it never looked like materialising as Harps swarmed all over their opponents, never gifting them the freedom or space to run riot, and as the game went on, it was the visitors who grew in confidence.
“The second half performance was very pleasing. I thought we needed to use the ball a wee bit better than we did in the first half. We used the ball a lot better, kept it longer and made Derry work. That’s important when you’re playing away from home against a side like Derry, you can’t be giving them the ball straight back. The way we limited them in the second half to very little was extremely pleasing,” beamed Gallagher.
Harps backed up their supposed pre-match hype that Derry manager Stephen Kenny had accused them of in the build-up to the game.
“They've certainly had plenty to say, but talk is cheap,” was the response from the City boss ahead of the game after certain quarters from Ballybofey had merely suggested their motivation for being involved in such a highly charged end-of-season encounter.
Yet it was Harps who stood up and were counted for, twice taking the lead and then nullifying Derry’s creative spark in the second half.
“The plan was to come in to compete and try and win the football match. Obviously, there was a lot of talk during the week, people were asking me did I want to come in and spoil the party on Derry. But it’s not about that at all, it’s a derby game and you want to come in and get a result,” declared the Harps boss afterwards in the pouring rain.
“Looking at the overall game, I thought we had a go at them, we didn’t come in to sit and hope for a draw, we came in looking to win the match. There is a lot of local pride and what not at stake and I’m very proud of the players. They showed themselves in the light that they maybe haven’t been able to do this season – to come in here in front of such a big crowd and the best team in the league and maybe we were a wee bit unlucky we didn’t get more from the game.”
With four goals scored in the opening half an hour, it was perhaps a little surprising the last hour of the game didn’t yield another couple.
“To be honest, I wasn’t too happy with it,” smiled Gallagher. “I wanted the goals to slow down a bit because I know the goal threat Derry possess. If goals are flying in from both ends – they’ve been scoring a hell of a lot more than we have – so I didn’t want to go tit for tat with them in that regard.
“We are a wee bit disappointed with the way we conceded. We know the threat (Patrick) McEleney carries, he’s cut inside and scored a good goal from his point of view, but it’s poor from us because we knew he’d been doing that to team’s all season.
“The second goal then, the defenders should be well aware that on a night like that you need to follow in and help out your goalkeeper so we were caught out with that, too. But then again our two goals came from free-kicks and from open play we didn’t create an awful lot.”
As it seemed, Derry looked like they would need all three points to prevent having to go to Monaghan needing to avoid defeat, so Gallagher’s side would have been right in thinking a second half onslaught was about to come their way.
In truth, though, it never looked like materialising as Harps swarmed all over their opponents, never gifting them the freedom or space to run riot, and as the game went on, it was the visitors who grew in confidence.
“The second half performance was very pleasing. I thought we needed to use the ball a wee bit better than we did in the first half. We used the ball a lot better, kept it longer and made Derry work. That’s important when you’re playing away from home against a side like Derry, you can’t be giving them the ball straight back. The way we limited them in the second half to very little was extremely pleasing,” beamed Gallagher.
