Hutton praises Harps' 10 man display

Peter Hutton has praised his Finn Harps side after their 1-1 draw away to Waterford United last Friday night.

The Harps manager was delighted with a well-deserved point for his side with Matt Harkin grabbing the goal for Donegal side.

“Overall, it’s a good result”, Hutton told Extratime.ie after the game. “I’m a bit disappointed we went down to ten men but I thought for long periods of the game we were very comfortable.
 

“We expected a tough game but we had absolutely no fear coming down here, we won here last time and there is very little between the teams in this league. It’s a very competitive league but with very little between the teams. Yeah, they were on a great run of results but we believed we could get at least a point.”
 

Hutton believed that the proper preparation was a key component in getting something from the game.

“We were very positive in our preparation. We came down the night before, trained this morning (Friday) and we prepared well and we were justifiably worthy of a point.”

Despite being happy with the result, Hutton was incensed with the decision to send off Aaron O’Hagan midway through the second half. The midfielder was given a second yellow card for a challenge on Peter Keegan, although looking like he had cleanly won the ball.

“I thought it was a disgrace. You could clearly see he won the ball, cleanly”, Hutton said. “I think the sending off really changed the game because Waterford seemed to kick on again then but we weathered the storm and I thought we were excellent when we went to ten men as well. The lads worked extremely hard, full credit to them, they deserved at least the point.

Finn Harps’ next match sees SD Galway make the trip to Finn Park on Friday night. The point earned in Waterford will heighten expectations of a win on Friday night, according to Hutton.
 

“It’s four games unbeaten now so it’s important we keep that momentum going. We’re home to SD Galway next Friday so, again, that’s going to be a tough game. There will be expectations now because we’re at home and SD Galway are bottom.

"The expectations will be that we’re going to comfortably get the three points but that’s never the case in this league, so we have to prepare right. We’re expecting a tough game but we’re already looking forward to it.