Harps go to Cork with just 14 players

This Friday night sees the start of the second series of matches in the League of Ireland Premier campaign. And for Finn Harps it’s a daunting trip to take on the top team in the country Cork City at Turners Cross (kick-off 7.45). It would be an extremely tough test with a fully fit squad but Harps could be forced to travel south with just 14 players according to manager Ollie Horgan.
“We went to Bohemians with 16 players and now we are missing Eddie Dsane and Barry Molloy so that would make it 14. We normally have 18 names for the squad. So we’re actually worse off in terms of the injury situation with Eddie [Dsane] definitely out as he aggravated a back injury because we had to use him as a sub against Bohemians on Friday night. We’re waiting on the results of a scan back to see what the problem is. Barry [Molloy] is ruled because of the sending-off against Bohs.”
On the plus side Ciaran O’Connor did return against Bohs, while Horgan will be hoping that Mickey Funston will be available again after missing the Bohemians game. Danny Morrissey remains out and so misses the opportunity to feature against his former club due to an ongoing hamstring problem, while Jonny Bonner will not feature with a similar injury and B.J. Banda is out long term with knee damage. Packie Mailey and Harry Doherty are still recovering from the clash of heads in the Sligo game and won’t travel to Cork while Paddy McCourt will be in the squad but continues to be troubled by a hip injury.
John Caufield’s men are the runaway Premier Division League leaders having won all of their eleven league games so far this season plus two the two EA Cup matches, so that is the scale of the challenge facing Harps. That tremendous run started on the opening night of the campaign with a 1-0 victory over Horgan’s side in Ballybofey when Sean Maguire scored just before half-time.
“Cork have done brilliantly this season. They have been a great side and if Dundalk hadn’t been there then they could be going for four league titles in a row instead. John Caufield has done a great job. Season on season, Cork has got better. 13 straight wins shows the tremendous ability of their team. Nobody gives us a chance going down to Turners Cross but we’ll prepare as we always do. We’ll give it everything and see where that brings us” Horgan said.
So Harps will be very long odds to get anything out of this clash and in fact the hosts will be expected to take the three points with some comfort. Horgan’s outfit travel south on the back of two disappointing defeats against Drogheda at Finn Park and Bohemians last Friday night in Dalymount Park.