Finn Harps v Wexford Youths – eircom League of Ireland First Division – Finn Park, Friday 10 th August 2007 – kick-off 8.00pm

Shelbourne v Finn Harps – eircom League of Ireland First Division – Tolka Park, Sunday 12 th August 2007 – kick-off 5.00pm

Finn Harps face two crucial league meetings in the space of forty-eight hours, beginning with the visit of Wexford Youths to Finn Park tomorrow evening, before making the trip to Dublin on Sunday to face an in-form Shelbourne.

Paul Hegarty's side took their unbeaten run to eleven games with a fine 3-1 victory against Limerick 37 at Jackman Park last weekend.  That was followed up by an impressive display against a strong Glasgow Celtic side on Monday, which saw Harps win 3-2 after racing into a 3-0 half-time lead.  “It may have been a bit of a distraction, but we played very well against Celtic in the first half,” said Hegarty.  “We dug in when we had to in the second half and it was good to give most of the lads 45 minutes football.”

Conor Gethins and new signing Austin Friel picked up knocks in the Celtic game, but both are expected to be fit for the weekend's games.  Friel put in an impressive ninety minutes against Celtic and he and Seamus Brown will fight it out for the right to partner Gethins in attack on Friday as Stephen Parkhouse is suspended for the Wexford game.  Other than Parkhouse, who will be available for selection on Sunday, Hegarty has a full squad to choose from.

With Harps now up to third and fast closing the gap on the front two, Hegarty insists he is not worried with how other team's results are going.  “I've said it before, we don't bother with other results and we prefer to concentrate on our own games and we've two important games over the next few days.  All our focus is on Wexford for now and we'll plan for Shels after Friday's game.”

Hegarty knows that Harps need to be wary of Friday's opponents, who already won in Ballybofey this season.  “They've already won here this year and it was a bit of a tight game down there too (Harps won 1-0).”

Harps Chairman John Campbell has appealed for those who attended the Celtic game on Monday to again come out and support Harps on Friday.  “Its was fantastic too see such a big crowd at Finn Park and hopefully those who are not regular visitors will have seen that we have a great footballing side here,” said Campbell.  “These are almost all local players, and Paul Hegarty has them playing fantastic football, we are back in the playoff spot and very definitely in the hunt for the First Division title.  So I hope that some of the football fans in Donegal who came along for the big event on Monday will maybe come back for our league game with Wexford on Friday, or the massive cup derby match with Derry the following weekend, it would certainly be great to see more crowds like last night, and a few extra people through the turnstiles will make it a lot easier for us to keep developing and improving the club"

Sunday's hosts Shelbourne are in a rich vain of form at the minute, having won four of their last five games.  Their only defeat in that run came last month at Finn Park against Harps, as Stephen Parkhouse's goal was enough to give Paul Hegarty's side victory.  With Harps due to visit Tolka twice in the space of six weeks, Dermot Keely knows his side still have a lot to say in this season's promotion race.

No, with Monday's big glamour friendly out of the way, Harps can fully concentrate on their domestic efforts.  With Dundalk hosting Cobh at Oriel Park on Sunday afternoon, two positive results for Harps this weekend will close the gap on the top two further.  Then, Derry City visit Finn Park in the FAI Cup on Saturday week – another game keenly awaited by the Harps faithful.

Previous Meetings (v Wexford Youths):

13-Apr-07 (First Division) Finn Harps 1 Wexford Youths 2

23-Jun-07 (First Division) Wexford Youths 0 Finn Harps 1

Previous Meetings (v Shelbourne):

06-May-05 (Premier Division) Shelbourne 3 Finn Harps 0

23-Sep-05 (Premier Division) Finn Harps 0 Shelbourne 3

28-Oct-05 (Premier Division) Shelbourne 1 Finn Harps 0

05-Jul-06 (League Cup) Shelbourne 4 Finn Harps 1

16-Mar-07 (First Division) Finn Harps 2 Shelbourne 1

20-Jul-07 (First Division) Finn Harps 1 Shelbourne 0

Form guide (last six league games):

Finn Harps: W-W-D-W-D-W (14pts)

Wexford Youths: L-W-D-L-L-L (4pts)

Shelbourne : W-W-W-L-W-L (12pts)

Friday's game at Finn Park kicks-off at 8.00pm, while the game at Tolka Park against Shelbourne kicks-off at 5.00pm.