Hegarty making no excuses

May 25, 2007

By Chris McNulty

at Finn Park

FINN Harps manager Paul Hegarty said that he was ‘shocked and shattered' with last night's reversal at the hands of Cobh Ramblers and the Finn Park Chief certainly cut a frustrated figure in the aftermath of the defeat.

Looking at the league table, one sees Harps with just ten points collected from their opening eleven games and, speaking after last night's defeat to Cobh, Paul Hegarty said that he would be taking full responsibility for the failings.

The season was started with huge expectation and excitement among supporters, but that has quickly eroded and the focus now turns to getting some momentum back into the campaign with even third spot some way off at the stage.

Hegarty was placing no blame on the shoulders of his players though: “I am absolutely shocked and shattered with that result. You can't the performance, work-rate nor attitude of the players. To be honest I don't know how to explain it. I think in the last third, we're just not clinical enough,” he said.

“I don't think we can play much better than we did in the first half. To be honest, it was probably a similar first half to the Kilkenny match and we ended up being 4-0 up that night. The only difference tonight was that we didn't take the chances when they presented themselves.”

Harps had a few notable chances in that first half and after Cobh netted goal number two the home side went for broke and threw on Stephen Parkhouse and Barry Curran as they sought a means of getting back into the contest.

As it transpired, Harps' endeavours were in vain and the mood of the supporters as the trundled out pondering another hard-luck story was again one of disappointment.

“We played with four up for the last half an hour and we peppered their goal, but the thing just didn't go in. I don't know what you can say about it, but obviously there is something wrong and that's my fault at the end of the day,” Hegarty opined.

“I won't hide away from it. As I said, football is a results business and the results aren't going for me. I don't know what else I can do. At the minute it's tough.”

The manager was quick to offer sympathy to those supporters and he also indicated that he will be looking to delve into the transfer market when the window opens in July.

“I feel for supporters to be honest, I know exactly how they feel. They're not any more gutted than what I am myself. I never expected this and to be fair I think performances haven't been showing in results.

“Especially over the last month, I think performances have been excellent and we just don't seem to be getting the breaks for one reason or another.

Obviously I am going to have to try to bring in one or two players and freshen it up but I think that might be a bit disrespectful to the players who are there because I think everyone of them has shown a tremendous attitude from the first whistle this season,” said Hegarty.

“I can't fault their attitude, but when things aren't happening you have to try to change it. So, we'll be trying to bring in one or two players in the transfer window.”

For Hegarty, the task is to lift the players for Monday night's trip to Monaghan United when he will welcome club captain Tony Shields back into the fold after he served a suspension last night.

“We'll go there and we'll try and play in the same manner. We'll try and create chances again and hopefully they'll go in for us this time. We haven't got any time to dwell on this result because we're back in training on Sunday morning, so hopefully we'll go to Monaghan in a positive frame of mind and try to win the match,” he said.