Finn Harps v Monaghan United – eircom League of Ireland First Division – Finn Park, Tuesday 31 st July 2007 – kick-off 8.00pm

Finn Harps Manager Paul Hegarty has no fresh injury worries ahead of the visit of Monaghan United to Ballybofey on Tuesday evening.  Harps go into the match after a 0-0 draw away to Cobh on Saturday night last while Monaghan had a comfortable 3-0 victory over Kilkenny City at home on Friday night.  With no suspension worries for the midweek fixture, Hegarty is likely to name an unchanged side.

With Harps having a long journey behind them, and a day less to prepare for the game, Hegarty know that they need to remain focused.  “The game against Monaghan is going to be another difficult game for us.  Monaghan have had a day extra to prepare for tonight's game as they played on Friday and we also had the long journey home from Cobh on Saturday evening after the game to shake off.”

Hegarty was once again please with the performance of his side in Cobh, where they extended their unbeaten run to nine games.  “I don't think we played as well as we could.  It's a small tight pitch but I couldn't fault the players effort as they worked really hard and we deserved to leave there with a point, said Hegarty.  “We were probably the better team over the ninety minutes, but we just didn't create enough chances and we only had two or three half-chances in the match which isn't like us.  Having said that, we defended very well and James Gallagher had only one shot to save in the entire game and that's not bad when you consider we were playing away from home against a top of the table team.  We were disappointed in the fact that we didn't create more chances and in the fact that we didn't win the match.”

Monaghan will prove to be difficult opponents on Tuesday for Harps.  The have won two and drawn one of their last three games and will visit Ballybofey buoyed by their 3-0 victory over Kilkenny City at the weekend.  “Mick Cooke has them playing really well at the minute”, said Hegarty, “and they had a good 3-0 victory at the weekend and they are on a bit of an unbeaten run themselves.  There is no easy matches and if we don't perform as well as we can it will turn out to be a very difficult night.”

Monaghan frustrated Harps on their last visit to Ballybofey when they went home with a 0-0 draw, thanks in no small part to the heroics of their goalkeeper Alvin Rouse.  In the fixture at Kingspan Century Park in May, Harps won 2-0 with the goals coming from the now departed Chris Breen and Stephen Parkhouse.

Previous Meetings:

16-May-06 – Finn Harps 4 Monaghan United 1 (First Division)

28-Jun-06 - Monaghan United 0 Finn Harps 0 (First Division)

19-Aug-06 – Finn Harps 4 Monaghan United 0 (First Division)

20-Oct-06 - Monaghan United 0 Finn Harps 1 (First Division)

30-Mar-07 – Finn Harps 0 Monaghan United 0 (First Division)

28-May-07 - Monaghan United 0 Finn Harps 2 (First Division)

Form guide (last six league games):

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

Monaghan United: W-D-W-L-L-D (8pts)

Tuesday's game at Finn Park kicks-off at 8.00pm.