Finn Harps v Kildare County – Eircom League of Ireland First Division – Finn Park, Tuesday 26 th June 2007 – kick-off 8.00pm

Finn Harps go into Tuesday night's game against Kildare County unbeaten in their last five games, and have only registered one defeat in the last ten. Other than Cobh Ramblers, Tuesday's visitors to Ballybofey were the last side to record a victory over Paul Hegarty's Harps. Back in April, County recorded just their second ever victory over Harps when they defeated the Finn Park side 1-0 at Station Road, Newbridge.

Harps will have to plan without the suspended Stephen Parkhouse for the midweek fixture. The big striker was sent off after picking up two yellow cards in the 1-0 victory over Wexford Youths on Saturday night. The suspension presents a further headache to boss Paul Hegarty who had to start Saturday's game without the injured quartet of Michael Funston, Barry Curran, Eloka Asokuh and Seamus Brown although the latter two were fit enough to take a seat on the bench. Brown, if fit, is the ideal replacement for the suspended Parkhouse while the rest of the starting eleven on Tuesday is unlikely to change.

Hegarty was more than happy with the result and team performance against Wexford at the weekend. " I think it was very much deserved and it tells it's own story that Wexford never had a shot at goal in the 90 minutes", commented Hegarty. " Some of our play, especially in the first half on what was a very good pitch was excellent and we created a number of decent chances and we deserved to go in 1-0 up at the break. We knew they would come out in the second half and try to get at us a bit more, but we kept the ball very well and they never really got a chance to build up any momentum."

One of the form teams in the First Division at present, Hegarty has warned his squad not to take Tuesday's visitors for granted. "We are now unbeaten in five matches and have won our three games in the league and moved to the next round of the cup in that run. People can take their eye of the ball when they are on a decent run, but the next match is the most important one and we must make sure we are right for that one. It'll be far from an easy game and John Ryan always has his team well prepared and they'll be coming up here looking for the three points for themselves."

When the two sides met earlier in the season, Harps went to the Kildare venue after a poor run of results. John Ryan's side rubbed further salt into the Harps supporters wounds winning by the only goal of the game which arrived just before half-time through the dangerous Philly Gorman, who hit his sixth goal of the season in the 2-1 comeback victory over Athlone Town on Saturday last.

Previous Meetings:

13 th November 2004 (First Division) Kildare County 0 Finn Harps 2

18 th March 2006 (First Division) Kildare County 2 Finn Harps 5

20 th May 2006 (First Division) Finn Harps 2 Kildare County 2

29 th July 2006 (First Division) Kildare County 1 Finn Harps 3

30 th September 2006 (First Division) Finn Harps 3 Kildare County 1

21 st April 2007 (First Division) Kildare County 1 Finn Harps 0

Form guide (last six league games):

Finn Harps: W-W-W-L-D-W (13pts)

Kildare County : W-D-L-L-W-D (8pts)

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