Harps receive Cowan blow

Finn Harps will have to cope without last season’s club player of the year, Keith Cowan, for six to eight weeks after the central defender limped off with a hairline fracture in his ankle during Friday night’s defeat to Limerick.

The centre-half was forced off on a stretcher right on the brink of half-time and despite initial hopes that the player might be back in a couple of weeks, it was revealed over the weekend that the Ramelton man could miss a large bulk of the first series of games.

“It looks like he has a couple of hairline fractures,” said Harps Director of Football Felix Healy.

“He will be in a plaster cast for four weeks and it will be another two to four before he’s back, which is a shame. He has a great presence and is passionate about the club. It’s a pity.”

Cowan’s withdrawal came on the back of a first half in which Harps fell behind courtesy of strikes from Paudie Quinn and Rory Gaffney.

The visitors, though, hit back through Adam Clarke midway through the second half and although they were unable to complete the comeback, Healy was left was incredibly encouraged by his side’s gallant performance at Jackman Park, where he felt his side made the First Division favourites look a “really ordinary team”.

Healy said: “I thought the first goal was one of those. It could have bounced anywhere. Keith headed it, it came off the back of Behan’s head and it absolutely dropped on a plate for your man (Quinn) to score. Up to that, I thought we responded really well and were on top.

“Ciaran (Greene) just got his body shape a wee bit wrong and your man (Gaffney) completely miss-kicked it and it’s gone in the net. All of a sudden we’re 2-0 down and your thinking, “we’ve been in charge out there”.

“In the second half, I thought we bossed it and made them look a really ordinary team. We looked half decent, as I thought we would. I said to the boys at training on Thursday night that I thought we would be better than them.

“That’s the way it turned out, I thought we were better than them. They have a very, very big side and that’s difficult to cope with, but tonight I thought we did really, really well.”

Despite going in at the break nursing a two-goal deficit at the home of the league’s outright favourites, Harps re-emerged after the restart and put their stamp on proceedings with an action-packed display that had everything but a killer final ball.

A ninety-second minute effort from Denis Behan, which was parried away by Ciaran Gallagher, was Limerick’s only shot on target in the second period, as Harps matched their illustrious opponents all the way.

Healy added: “The message at half-time was that there wasn’t a great deal wrong. I said to them, “there’s goals there”. I felt beforehand that our shape would be better than theirs and, is it turned out, that was the case.

“I just felt that if we believed in ourselves – because we do have a new team with a lot of young players – that we could get at them. The lads are disappointed in there. We should’ve come out with at least something from that game.

“It says volumes about us that we’ve come down here to take on a team that everybody’s talking about and made them so look ordinary it isn’t true. And that’s all credit to our lads but we’ve got to build on that.”

Harps now welcome Mervue United to Ballybofey on Saturday night for their first home game of the new season and Healy is hoping his side can register their first points against the fancied Galway outfit.  

He said: “If we can cut out the mistakes and stick together as a unit we’ll be fine. I thought Tommy McBride was fantastic tonight. We’re looking forward to the next game now and I think the guys can take great heart from that performance.”