Kilkenny City v Finn Harps – eircom League of Ireland First Division – Buckley Park, Saturday 7 th July 2007 – kick-off 7.30pm

July 5, 2007

The in-form team in the First Division takes on the side at the bottom of the table as Finn Harps make the long journey south to take on Kilkenny City at Buckley Park on Saturday evening. Harps have won each of their last five First Division games without conceding a goal and when these sides met at the beginning of May at Finn Park, Harps put five goals past the visitors.

New Harps signing Declan Divin is expected to make his debut at Buckley Park against a side that hasn't recorded a league win in ten games. Divin joined Harps at the start of the week from Irish League Premier Division side Institute. Harps boss Paul Hegarty has mounting injury worries with Michael Funston, John O'Loughlin and Barry Curran all ruled out. Doubts also hang over the fitness of Jonathan Minnock, Eloka Asokuh and Tony Sheilds who all missed the League of Ireland Cup quarter-final defeat against UCD.

Hegarty will wait until late in the week before assessing what players can make the trip to Kilkenny. "I'll have a look at things after training tonight (Thursday) to see how we are fixed. I honestly don't know at this stage who will be travelling and who won't."

Hegarty was disappointed to lose by the odd goal in three against the Students on Monday night last. "We were very disappointed after the game and we felt we didn't deserve to lose the game. We had a couple of chances before they took the lead and even towards the end of the game we had chances to push the game to extra-time. I've never seen an away team create as many chances at Belfield as we did on Monday."

Harps confirmed earlier this week that they had also signed Neil Lloyd from Letterkenny Rovers. The Englishman is unavailable this weekend but should feature in the squad that visits Dundalk next Thursday night. Lloyd returns to Finn Park having had spells at Omagh Town and Rovers since his first spell at Harps.

Buckley Park has always proved a difficult venue for Harps, and last season they had a mixed bag of results at the Kilkenny venue. At the start of June Harps lost by the only goal of the game while the meeting towards the end of the season produced a 2-0 victory for Anthony Gorman's side.

Previous Meetings:

11-Jun-05 (FAI Cup) Kilkenny City 0 Finn Harps 1

25-Mar-06 (First Division) Finn Harps 1 Kilkenny City 2

03-Jun-06 (First Division) Kilkenny City 1 Finn Harps 0

06-Aug-06 (First Division) Finn Harps 2 Kilkenny City 1

06-Oct-06 (First Division) Kilkenny City 0 Finn Harps 2

04-May-07 (First Division) Finn Harps 5 Kilkenny City 0

Form guide (last six league games):

Finn Harps: W-W-W-W-W-L (15pts)

Kilkenny City : D-L-D-D-L-D (4pts)

Saturday's game at Buckley Park kicks-off at 7.30pm.