After a tough 2-0 loss against Sligo Rovers at home on Friday night, Finn Harps will travel to Tallaght Stadium to take on Stephen Bradley’s Shamrock Rovers on Monday night.
After Friday’s challenging physical battle in Ballybofey, manager Ollie Horgan has been focusing on player recovery ahead of tonight’s kick-off at 8.00pm.
Harry Ascroft and Mark Timlin have been joined on the injury list by Sam Todd who missed the Sligo game with a foot injury.
Gareth Harkin is a doubt for tomorrow night while Mark Coyle is unavailable due to exams and Sean Boyd cannot be considered because he is on loan from Shamrock Rovers.
“Look we have a number of lads with knocks after Friday night’s game never mind Harry Ascroft, Mark Timlin, and Sam Todd who all missed the Sligo game,” Horgan said.
“Gareth Harkin is definitely a doubt and we won’t have Mark Coyle due to exams and Sean Boyd because he is on loan from Shamrock Rovers.
“We won’t know the full extent of the situation until later in the day.
“It’s not ideal to be going to Tallaght against a team of Shamrock Rovers calibre having played a game on Friday night but we’ll get on with it now.”
Harps’ game against Rovers is the only Premier Division match on, meaning players will be forced to take half-day of their work for the second Monday in a row.
The Harps’ management team is acutely aware of the magnitude of the challenge against the Hoops who have seven points from four games played.
Harps have two points from their four matches.
“Stephen Bradley has loads of options from defence to the forward line. That gives Shamrock Rovers plenty of room to make changes after drawing with Dundalk on Friday night.
“They also have the advantage of being at home again whereas we will be on road on Monday from lunchtime.
“Rovers have a huge amount of experience and talent with the likes of Joey O’Brien, Greg Bolger, Ronan Finn, Aaron McEneff and Jack Byrne.
“So that is the scale of the challenge that faces us in Tallaght tomorrow night.
“We’ll complete our preparations today but it’s going to take a huge performance from every one of our lads to take a positive result home tomorrow night.”
Injured: Harry Ascroft, Mark Timlin, Sam Todd
Doubtful: Gareth Harkin
Suspended: None
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Ollie Horgan delivers injury-update ahead of Shamrock Rovers fixture tonight
written by
Stephen Maguire
March 4, 2019
Stephen Maguire
Stephen Maguire is the co-founder of Donegal Daily. He has worked as a reporter for almost 30 years starting locally with the Donegal Peoples Press before moving to the Mirror Group. He continues to contribute daily to national media outlets including the Irish Times, RTE, the Irish Independent, Irish Sun, Irish Mirror, Irish Star, the Daily Mail and the Examiner.