Hegarty not happy
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Finn Harps slumped to their ninth league defeat of the season on Friday night when they went down by a goal to nil to relegation rivals UCD. That result leaves them third from bottom as they take a break from league action until June 20th when they face league leaders Bohemians at Finn Park.
It was clear from manager Paul Hegartys reaction to the final whistle that he was not a happy man. The various noises emanating from the away team dressing team backed up the theory that not only was Hegarty unhappy - but that he was livid.
He had good reason to be. After an important win over Cobh Ramblers last weekend, and an impressive display against Derry in Ballybofey, his sides performance on Friday was disappointing to say the least.
Speaking to extratime.ie after the game, Hegarty outlined what he felt was lacking - "We didn't show any hunger or passion for it tonight. We created very little, I thought it was a very poor game, they were hungrier than us and that's very disappointing".
The former Derry assistant manager continued - "There is no excuse for that type of performance to be perfectly honest. I know the players don't mean to go out and perform like that, but at the end of the day that is just not acceptable".
Hegarty felt that UCD failed to create many chances and that they weren't that much better than his own team. In truth, UCD were a lot a better, and over the course of the ninety minutes created plenty of openings.
Despite his account of the game being flawed, he was right that Pete Mahons side deserved the points - "No matter who you are playing against the first thing you are looking for is a bit of honesty, professionalism and hunger. If you get that in any match you have half a chance, we didn't have that tonight and therefore and we deserved to lose. UCD fully deserved to win the match".
Harps face Athlone Town in Lissywollen next Friday in the FAI Cup. Looking ahead to that tie, Hegarty admitted that the injured and unavailable list could have a few more names on it - "We got a few knocks and bruises there tonight - I don't know where they got them though. We will see how things are during the week".
Athlone took five points off Harps over the course of last season. At Finn Park, Harps drew and won against the team from the Midlands, while at Lissywollen in April the sides drew two all. At the beginning of September, Harps suffered a shock defeat when Ian Rossitor scored the games only goal.
