Ollie Horgan has not yet thought about the ramifications of relegation and says his own future as the Finn Harps manager will be decided after the final game of the season.
Harps are dangling perilously in the relegation zone ahead of the final two games of the season.
Horgan’s men must win their final two games, at home to Drogheda this Friday and away at Bohemians on Friday-week, and also hope that other results fall in their favour.
With a return to the First Division now looking all-but certain, Horgan says he won’t think about 2018 until the current campaign has ended.
“I don’t know if it will be my decision,” he said at a press conference in the Clanree Hotel yesterday.
“That will be something that will come up when our fate is sealed, one way or another.
“Until we’re mathematically relegated, there’s no point wasting your time thinking about what might happen or about what people might want to happen.
“As a management team and as a club, Friday and even Bohs, if there’s something to fight for, is all that matters.”
“We’ve put all the thoughts, energy and travel into trying to stay in this Division.”
Horgan, though, is not under any duress in the position. The former Fanad United boss has the backing of the club’s Board to stay in the post, even if Harps are relegated and it is expected that Horgan will guide Harps into 2018.
The landscape now suggests that that will begin in the Fist Division.
Since beating Limerick 2-0 at the Markets Field in September, Harps have lost four-in-a-row.
Friday’s 3-0 loss to Derry at Maginn Park leaves Harps on the brink of making the drop.
Horgan said: “Of course, we’re clutching at straws. We’re written off and rightly so.
“Anyone being realistic would say it’s a bridge too far.
“We didn’t put a shift in against Derry. Derry out-fought us as well as out-played us. The fight was disappointing.
“But until it’s mathematically gone, we’ll fight tooth and nail.
“The confidence is down and we need something to turn it.”
The Harps boss says he feared the deal was sealed in the immediate aftermath of Friday’s defeat in Buncrana – but insists his side will give it everything over the next ten days.
He said: “After Friday night, looking at the body language and what have you, I thought that we were gone. But when people tell you the results, you then realise: ‘Actually we’re not gone’.
“We’ll see. We’ll do all we can to turn Drogheda over.”
Horgan has been the Harps manager since taking over from Peter Hutton in the winter of 2013.
Having reached the FAI Cup semi-finals in 2014, Harps won promotion in 2015 and managed to stay in the top flight last season.
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