Finn Harps 2 - 0 Mervue United

• Aidan O'Donnell
• Sat, Aug 06 2011


Finn Harps returned from their mid-season break to record a second successive win against Mervue United in Ballybofey tonight.

Goals from debutant Kevin Devaney and Blaine Curtis in six second-half minutes gave Harps their fifth win of the campaign, while Mervue tasted defeat for the tenth time. It was also a second clean-sheet on the bounce for Ciaran Gallagher and his defensive team-mates.

Harps included three of their recent signings from the off with Kevin Devaney, Mark McGoldrick and Gary Curran all making their Ballybofey bow in the Blue of Harps. Barry O’Mahoney, meanwhile, had to settle for a place on the bench, alongside the likes of Mark Forker and Stephen O’Donnell, who is still recovering from a hamstring injury.

Mervue, who boasted a nine-point lead over Harps coming into the game, travelled north safe in the comfort that they had inflicted two defeats on the Ballybofey side already this season, one in the league and one in the league cup.

In what was an evenly contested opening period, both sides went close to breaking the deadlock, though Harps looked the more dangerous from open play.

Paddy McLaughlin headed onto the right-hand stanchion from a Devaney free-kick while Kevin McHugh had a goal-bound effort blocked brilliantly by Marc Ludden, following a wonderfully lofted through-ball from Marc Brolly.

The Galway side also looked dangerous going forward, with centre-half Martin Conneely blasting over after the ball had ricocheted inadvertently off the crossbar and into the player’s path.

The inclusion of not one but three debutants meant Harps didn’t have the flowing familiarity that one might hope for and any forward momentum was dealt with efficiently by a Mervue side that claimed three wins on the road prior to Saturday night’s meeting.

Harps closed out the half on top and might have taken the lead were it not for a somewhat fortunate block from Martin Conneely on Kevin McHugh, who did well to spin his marker but couldn’t quite find his way through, following a nice header over the top of the defence from Brolly.

McHugh continued to probe for that elusive breakthrough and went close again shortly after the restart with a well-executed strike from twenty-five yards that just dipped over the ‘bar.

At the other end, Mervue had a great chance on a counter but Pat Hoban failed to take advantage of an excellent drag-back from Kevin Crehan.

It proved a costly miss as Harps bagged the lead just a few minutes later when Devaney latched onto a loose ball on the edge of the area to fire into the top right-hand corner, giving Ger Hanley no chance.

Blaine Curtis, who came off the bench along with Stephen O’Donnell, then doubled the home side’s advantage from no more than two yards out after rounding the Mervue ‘keeper.

The visitors could and probably should have pulled one back a few minutes later when Dravins teed up the onrushing Dave Goldbey but the replacement could only fire straight at Ciaran Gallagher, who pulled off a terrific save to be fair.

McHugh, who made his 300th appearance for Harps, did everything but score, with two great efforts in the closing stages just drifting off-target. The Killea striker can boast an amazing record of 146 goals in 300 games since making his debut in a league-cup win over Fanad United some thirteen years ago.

Finn Harps: Ciaran Gallagher; Martin Redmond, Paddy McLaughlin, Keith Cowan, JP Gallagher; Kevin Devaney, Aaron McElwee, Gary Curran, Marc Brolly, Mark McGoldrick, Kevin McHugh. Subs: Stephen O’Donnell (Curran) Blaine Curtis (McGoldrick, both 58 mins), Mark Forker (Devaney, 90 mins).

Mervue United: Ger Hanley; Dave O’Brien, Martin Conneely, James Casserly, Marc Ludden; Kevin Crehan, Pat Hoban, Barry McEntee, Alex Lee; John Mountney, Peter Dravins. Subs: Dave Goldbey (Lee, 63 mins), Jason Molloy (Hoban, 72 mins).

Extra-time.ie man of the match: Kevin McHugh.

Attendance: 250.