Hegarty takes comfort from improved showing

By Chris McNulty

FOLLOWING his side's stalemate in Athlone on Saturday night last, Finn Harps manager Paul Hegarty paid tribute to his charges for what he felt was a ‘very positive performance' although the Ballindrait man admitted that this was the classic case of two points dropped rather than one gained.

After seeing Stevie Gavin earn Athlone a point with a goal five minutes into the second half after goals from John O'Loughlin and Shaun Holmes over-turned an early deficit created by Paul McTiernan, the Harps noted that it was ‘definitely two points dropped alright.'

However, Hegarty most certainly not downbeat as he felt his men had performed admirably and mentioned that they did particularly well to hold out after the sending off of Gordon Simms on 82minutes.

“I thought it was a very positive performance because we created an awful lot of chances there tonight. We scored two very good goals and were a wee bit unlucky not to get more,” said Hegarty.

“In fairness, Athlone started the match really well and we could have been two or three down early doors. I have to say it's the first actual football match I've seen in this Division so far. Athlone came out to play and we came out to play.

“I thought the boys battled really well, even when we went down to ten men and we probably could have won the match at the death. I think that's the way things have been going for us - things haven't just been dropping right. I think you could see there tonight that was our best performance and hopefully we can build on that,” commented the Harps chief.

Hegarty made some alterations for Saturday night's fixture and he feels the players who came into the side did their chances of retaining their spots no harm whatsoever.

“We made a few chances to give boys a chance and people certainly didn't let themselves down,” he noted.

“As I said at the start of the season, I thought I had a good squad of players so it didn't bother me to bring in different players. Those boys have been knocking on their door and they deserved their chance. They didn't do themselves any harm at all,” added Hegarty.