Friday night is here again and for the final time this season Finn Harps are home as they welcome Treaty to Ballybofey. In a game that means nothing, to both sides as both have nothing to play for with the play offs now being confirmed to being Bray, UCD, Wexford and Athlone.
So far this season Harps and treaty have met three times and all three games ended 1-0. Harps won twice and Treaty won once. Both sides will still want to end the season on a high.
It’s been a tough season for Harps with having to face away games back to back to Kerry and Cork as an example and there is many more examples as well. In the end you can’t fault the players they have given absolutely everything in the last 6/7 games to take it to the final 2 games of the season and sadly Monday night didn’t go our way so we are going to finish 6th but you can’t fault the effort and work rate of them players, the dedication and commitment to play for Finn Harps this season. I know I am very grateful to them all and also to the back room team. I will thank them one by one as they come off the field on Friday night after the game no matter how the game goes. To get up at potentially 5:30/6:00am and leave Finn Park some days 7:30/8:00am and not get back to the early hours of the morning shows how much playing for this club meant to the players. They deserve huge credit for it because not many would do what they have done. I am very proud to be a Finn Harps fan, of course last night hurt, it definitely did but compared to last season or the season before there has been progress made.
I know myself and many fans will know that this will be the last game for Harps for many of these players, so hopefully they can give us fans one more win. I would hate to think it would be Darren Murphy’s last game managing Harps as well. I hope it’s not, Darren has done his best and Harps have improved since he took over. It would be a blow to lose him for both on the field and off the field. An example of this is after the Bray game last Friday night Darren took all the players kits home and washed them and dried them for Monday night’s game. That shows the character of the person Darren Murphy is.
I hope the fans get out and back the lads one final time this season against Treaty, in my opinion it’s the least they deserve. I have just heard the good news this evening about Oisin Cooney and Gavin McAteer getting offered a trial at Nottingham Forest. They are heading over on Sunday, and I would just like to congratulate the two lads and wish them well with the trial. As this is the final game of the season it’s the final write up from me but hopefully be back doing write ups come February in 2025.
Up the Harps, Shane Bell