Finn Harps boss Ollie Horgan is stressing the importance of his Finn Harps side picking up more points and hopes to start that when they take on Shelbourne tonight.
Since the return after the summer break, Finn Harps have picked up one point from three games.
After a quick start by Sligo Rovers, Harps found themselves 2-0 down after just 7 minutes into the return from the summer break, and lost 3-0 at the Showgrounds.
It looked like it was going to be a similar story at Finn Park when St. Patrick’s Athletic went 1-0 up after six minutes and Billy King scored his second after half an hour, but late goals from José Carrillo and Ethan Boyle salvaged a draw for Horgan’s side.
The most recent game was a tightly contested 1-0 loss to league leaders Shamrock Rovers, but the Harps boss is wanting to improve results.
Horgan said: “We need results, not performances, but they go hand in hand and in Shelbourne we’ll need a performance because they were hard done by in their game in Sligo.
“They’ll be feeling very unfortunate not to have gotten a win or at least a draw and they’ll be an absolute handful tonight.”
Shelbourne have has a similar return since the break, losing to Bohemians and Sligo away with a draw against Dundalk in between.
While Harps have got the better over Shelbourne in both games this season, Horgan insists that doesn’t count for much now.
“The second game was a nothing game that could have gone either way. They’re a different side now, they have different players from when we played them before and they’re probably the fittest side in the league and that’s saying a lot with the fitness some of the other clubs have. We’ll have our work cut out for ourselves”
The first meeting of the season was a 3-0 win at Tolka Park, with Ethan Boyle getting the opener.
Eric McWoods and Conor Tourish both scored their first goals for the club in that game, which was the Donegal clubs first win of the season.
At Finn Park, a late Barry McNamee strike saw Finn Harps run out 1-0 winners in April.
While McWoods and Ryan Rainey are both doubts for the game, with David Webster out for the season, the Donegal side are close to a clean bill of health.
And that has been added to by the addition of Scottish defender Harry Nicolson.
Horgan said on the new signing: “Harry can play a number of positions, he’s a young lad and he went from Inverness to the Highland League so it will be a step up for him but he’s got a good attitude and we need it and we need him and everybody else.”
Kick-off at Tolka Park is at 7.45pm and can be streamed on loi.tv
