It’s hard to believe that one hundred and eighteen days and nights will have passed since Finn Harps brought their 2016 season to an end with a 1-0 win over Bohemians before opening their 2017 campaign this Friday evening.
But probably even more difficult to comprehend that one Paddy McCourt will, all going well, be taking his place in the team that lines up against Cork City to get the new season up and underway.
By Paddy Walsh
His signing is a real coup for Ollie Horgan and one that comes on the back of a handful of impressive captures even if none of them match that of the former Celtic and Northern Ireland international.
McCourt’s wing trickery has won countless admirers over the years – except perhaps those who have come up against him. And at just 33 years of age, he has still plenty to offer since making his professional debut with Rochdale back in 2001.
Spells, and goals, have followed at Shamrock Rovers, Derry City and Glasgow Celtic along with a number of other clubs. But during his time across the water, the ‘Derry Pele’ attracted the attentions of the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool though moves in either direction didn’t transpire.
But that initial interest underlined his class and ability and to see him trotting out at Finn Park in home colours will have fans blinking with some disbelief.
And hopefully opposing defenders blinking for another reason.
Harps probably could have done with an easier start to the campaign with John Caulfield’s Cork – in many eyes – the favourites for the title this season even with champions, Dundalk, lurking menacingly in the vicinity.
That 3-0 win in the President’s Cup Final at Turner’s Cross last weekend showed they mean business.
But what game is going to be easy this year? And certainly for a Harps side that will be every pundit’s favourite to be one of the three teams dropping through the relegation trap door at the end of the season.
Remember the start of the 2016 campaign, however? Derry City came to Finn Park as hot favourites but found Harps in inspired form on the night.
And remember too. This weekend’s opponents will have a certain wing wizard to contend with….
Meanwhile, there’ll be another legend at Finn Park this Friday night and while his playing days are over, and have been for some time, Joe Logan would certainly be a comfortable fit in an all-time best Harps line-up.
I can remember some sparkling displays from the Ramelton man – none more so than an F.A.I. Cup tie in Ballybofey against Athlone Town.
An outstanding performance was capped by a goal of sublime quality – and, it has to be said, matched by two goals and an equally impressive display from fellow midfielder, John McElwaine, on that Sunday afternoon.
I met Joe recently at the launch of the Donegal Sports Star awards and he’s still the gentleman. And well deserving of the honour of being guest of honour at Finn Park for the new season’s opener.
THE MONEY MEN COMETH…….
The gates at MacCumhaill Park will open on Sunday to welcome the 1.5 million euro team to town.
And up against their 911,549 euro hosts you’d have to be anticipating victory for the Dubs. But if last weekend’s F.A. Cup action in England proved, it’s that financial equivalents don’t always figure – it’s the performance on the day that counts and I expect Donegal to give a good one even if they may not outscore the visitors.
Over the weekend, I was purveying a comparison table on the costs to run our inter-county teams during 2016.
And while you might be fairly certain that Dublin would lead the way when it comes to spending the big bucks, you’d be wrong – topping this particular table are Mayo who splashed out 1,649,401 euro in their latest bid to eradicate The Curse.
And Donegal? They lead the way in Ulster having opened the coffers to the tune of 911,549 euro – up from 773,661 euro in 2015. Armagh were the next biggest spenders in the Province while Tyrone finished well down the table having “only” forked out 486,987 euro.
Money talks? Not necessarily as the results at the business end of the season underlined. And Donegal were, in fact, the eighth biggest inter-county spenders in the country behind the likes of Cork, Galway, Roscommon and Kerry.
Sunday’s Allianz National League clash in Ballybofey won’t even up the stakes where finance is concerned but you feel that in front of a passionate home crowd, Rory Gallagher’s men, even those, and particularly those, who are only just reaching that status, will be fired up enough to make a real game of it.
After all it is the All-Ireland Champions they’ll be up against and Tyrone proved that they can be vulnerable.
It’s been a mixture of good and not so good from Donegal to date and while I believe they’ll emerge at the wrong end of the scoreline, there might not be that much in it at the finish.
Unlike those respective bank balances.
….AND THE BIG MAN GOETH
He has been one of the most commanding figures in the game in this country for many a campaign. Under-rated some might say even if his is a name that has been prominent since Donegal began to show as a real force when it comes to the Championship in recent times.
But the time has come – prematurely it has to be said – for Neil Gallagher to take a bow from the inter-county scene, a back injury that wasn’t going away forcing him to end his time in the Donegal colours he has graced so brilliantly.
With an All-Ireland medal and three Ulster equivalents in his locker, he’s not going empty-handed and the memories of some magnificent performances along the way will at least ease the pain for both him and his legions of supporters who stretch far beyond the confines of Glenswilly.
Social media played its tributes to the big man with Michael Murphy chipping in with “some man for one man”. My favourite out of many was a tweet from Niall McCauley who suggested Gallagher was the only man who could run the length of Croke Park in four steps!
And run the length of it, and many another venue, he did. A star for Donegal and for Glenswilly (his performance for his club side in last October’s County Final against Kilcar was a prime reason why the favourites became unstuck on the day).
Will we ever see his like again in the county jersey?
HAROLD’S CROSS (AND KERR GETS ON THE END OF IT…!)
And so another one departs for the blue beyond. Or wherever old greyhound tracks that, in their time, doubled as a football stadium, go (probably already in the pipeline for commercial or residential development).
It wasn’t today or yesterday but I do recall taking myself along to Harold’s Cross – watching those young whippets tearing up the surface, those powerful legs propelling them along. Mind you, I can’t quite remember who the Harps were playing that day….
Yes, I never actually witnessed a greyhound meeting at the famous old Dublin track but with five League of Ireland clubs having, at varying times, played their home fixtures out of the ‘Cross, I did get to see one or two games there.
One of those clubs was St. Patrick’s Athletic and in last Saturday’s ‘Irish Independent’, Brian Kerr, who led the club to title success during their spell at the venue, offered an entertaining memory of his involvement there in the late eighties/early nineties.
He recalled George Best coming over for a fund-raiser in 1992 – not to play but to participate in a question and answer session. The club would look after him, they had promised. “We’ll pay you a few bob and chauffeur you around.
“True to our word, we did. Jimmy Connors, a great character and friend, collected George and Alex at the airport…albeit in his 20-year-old Datsun. ‘I’ve been picked up in better ash-trays”, George told me the following day,” Kerr recollected (those Datsuns were always the butt of some jibes).
After being pipped for the title by Dundalk – whatever happened them? – in his first season with Pat’s, the would-be Republic of Ireland boss led the then Harold’s Crossers to glory the following year.
Bestie did play at the venue during his stint with Cork Celtic when Shelbourne were the hosts – but not as often as Harps who would have been regular visitors back in the day.
And now it becomes yet another piece of Irish sporting history – another Cross to bear for those of us who get nostalgic about such things.
CUP LINKS
Name the former Finn Harps player who will, barring injury or suspension, play in the F.A. Cup quarter-finals?
You got him. Shaun Williams who turned out – and turned out well – for Millwall in their lone goal victory over Premiership champions (I honestly can’t see them reclaiming it this season) Leicester City.
Williams and his club will now travel to White Hart Lane for that quarter-final tie next month.
And what about Lincoln City? Two World Wars have passed into the pages since a non-league club made it through to this stage of the competition but the Sincil Bank outfit, operating out of the National League (so not quite non-league then) will also be travelling to North London for a last eight tie against the Gunners.
And back home in Derry, I’ve no doubt another ex-Harps man in the form – and form was his middle name – of Brendan Bradley will be watching and hoping for a Lincoln victory given his own associations with the club back in the seventies.
Though I still doubt any of the current batch will have matched the stupendous goal the big man scored against Reading during his all-too brief time in English football.
A goal that was something similar to the one he netted in his first very first game following his return to Finn Park from Lincoln in a 3-0 win over the Shels.
But you’re probably too young to remember it.
SPORTING HONOURS
And now a couple of hugely earned congratulations to two Donegal sporting stalwarts.
Patsy McGonagle has been chosen to manage the Irish team who will compete in the European Indoors Championships in Belgrade from March 3rd to 5th.
No real surprise given his service to athletics and his Olympian stints as team manager.
A true ambassador for athletics. And the same can be said for Michael Crossan in respect of the Community Games. What an effort he and his wife, Mary, have put in to the competition over the years.
The Letterkenny man has been nominated for a Community Games Golden Jubilee Volunteer Award.
Get those votes in and make them count.
ROY IN TOWN TO SUPPORT RONAN
Roy Keane
As mentioned here last week, there’s an unfortunate clash of events on Friday night with no less a personality than Roy Keane set to make his presence felt at a fund-raising function in Letterkenny.
The money raised on the night will go to the Ronan Sweeney Rehabilitation Fund – the popular local man the victim of an horrific accident in Sligo last summer which saw him suffer serious spinal injuries.
It’s a cause worthy of all our support and the Mount Errigal Hotel should certainly be bouncing.
Just don’t mention Saipan. Ah, what the heck, go ahead….
