Finn Harps -v- Limerick FC

• Aidan O'Donnell
• Thu, Mar 03 2011


FINN Harps welcome a team shouting from the rooftops of their aspirations to win the Airtricity League First Division to Ballybofey on Friday evening for what should prove to be a mouth-watering start to the 2011 campaign.

Much has been made of the recruits Harps manager James Gallagher has brought in, but it is the acquisitions of his opposite number Pat Scully that have made Limerick perhaps the most talked about team in the off-season.

Gary Sheahan has come in from Wexford Youths and Peter Hynes from Longford and the duo have formed a formidable three-pronged attack alongside Stephen O’Flynn in a hugely impressive pre-season for the Shannonsider’s.

A 4-0 obliteration of Bray Wanderers last weekend completed a flawless pre-season that saw them accumulate over twenty goals and remain unbeaten against both First Division and Premier Division opposition.

Only for a late stumble, Scully’s side would’ve contested the promotion play-off spots last season, but they appear to have gone a long way to ensuring no such collapse happens this time around with a whole host of new captures.

However, despite their somewhat over-indulgence in the market, Harps boss James Gallagher is approaching the game not so much looking to stop Limerick from playing, but instead getting his own side off to a ‘positive start’ in 2011.

He said: “We’re expecting a really tough game. It’s probably a tougher start than what was originally scheduled for us (Cork away). They have been the form team in pre-season, scoring three and four goals in every game they’ve played.

“On top of that, Pat Scully said he wants to win the league this year so if they feel like they can make a statement like at the start of the year we have to believe they have a really strong side. They’ll be tough to beat but it’s a game we’re going into looking to win.”

Harps, themselves, have enjoyed a reasonable half a dozen outings against the likes of Derry City and Sligo Rovers, as well as Ulster Senior League sides Letterkenny Rovers and champions Cockhill Celtic.

And Gallagher has commended his panel for the sheer enthusiasm they have displayed in what has been an excruciating programme throughout January and February.

“I need to give credit to the players for the condition they came back in, it made pre-season fairly easy. A lot of them have come back in much better physical shape to when they came back for pre-season last year. They have definitely improved in that regard.

“But speaking to the players, they have been saying it has been the toughest pre-season they have ever done, which is very encouraging from our point of view. It’s fantastic to see them really pushing themselves, trying to improve their overall fitness,” he said.

Bookmakers Paddypower has Shelbourne as 9/4 favourites to lift the title, closely followed by Waterford, Limerick, Cork and Monaghan with Harps next on the list at 20/1.

Harps finished twenty-two points adrift of the promotion places last term but Gallagher feels his squad can get much closer to the summit this year.

“We’ll not really know until we get up and running. You could play twenty pre-season games but when the real stuff starts it’s a completely different story and we won’t know where we’re at until we start playing the first few games.

“I would expect Limerick, Shelbourne, Waterford and Cork to be the main ones leading from the front. We would be hoping to keep in touch with those four sides for as long as we can, as opposed to sides like Longford, Wexford, and Athlone – teams we were embroiled with last year.

“I think if we can keep pace with those four sides – clubs with a much bigger budget than ours – it would be a fantastic achievement for the club,” said Gallagher who is entering his second full season in charge.

To bridge a twenty-five to thirty point gap from one season to the next, according to Gallagher, is a lot to ask for a club who announced at the start of this week that their player salaries had taken a huge hit over the last year and a half.

“Good luck to the likes of Limerick who are prepared to come out and say they are targeting winning the title but given where we finished last year, we are not in a position to say such things.

“We had a meeting earlier in the week and the main thing being said was that we’ll just be taking it one game at a time. It’s a long, hard season and a lot of things can happen so we’ll just see where it takes us.”

Team News

Finn Harps
Suspended: None
Doubtful: Aaron O’Hagan
Injured: Garbhan Friel (knee)
Unavailable: Gary Merritt

Limerick:
Suspended: None
Doubtful: Unknown
Injured: Unknown
Unavailable: Unknown

Paddypower odds: Finn Harps 9/4 Draw 9/4 Limerick evens

Extratime Prediction: Finn Harps 1-1 Limerick