Two sides in contrasting form battle it out tonight as third place Ramblers host second from bottom Finn Harps. With three wins and three clean sheets on the bounce, the Rams are flying especially on the back of last week’s 2-0 win at Waterford. Jack Doherty’s penalty and Brendeán Frahill’s deflected strike secured the three points which puts Cobh in a very promising spot in the play-off push.
Harps put in a brave display in the FAI Cup quarter-final last weekend, going down 2-1 at home to St Pat’s. Their last league outing was a 4-0 defeat to Waterford in Finn Park and manager Dave Rogers will already be looking to next season with a play-off spot now beyond reach, twelve points behind Wexford with only newcomers Kerry below them in the table.
The Donegal men were 4-3 winners when the pair last met, Ramblers winning the last St Colman’s Park meeting 4-1 in May. The three ties in 2023 have produced sixteen goals so expect more of the same tonight. The duo haven’t produced a 0-0 draw since a clash in the midst of the 2007 title race.
Dean Larkin is available again after missing the game against his parent club Waterford last week. The game may come too soon for Pierce Phillips and Liam Kervick, while Tiernan O’Brien suffered a fracture in his foot last week and will face a race against time to feature again this season.
Ramblers manager Shane Keegan spoke to the club’s media team earlier this week,
“It’s been a fantastic few weeks for us. Coming into the last home game against Athlone there was a lot of pressure on us for the first time in quite a while. Thankfully we put in a really strong performance. That gave us confidence going into the Waterford game to give it a right go. We knew that pressing them and chasing them down hadn’t worked before so we took the opposite approach, letting them have the ball. We had less than one third possession and won the game 2-0 reasonably comfortably. We were resolute, compact, and it was our best team performance of the season. We have a five point lead now on Athlone, it so easily could have been the other way around.
In terms of Finn Harps. They say the league table never lies, I disagree. There’s no way that Finn Harps are the second worst team in this division. They beat us 4-3 the last time up there and look at their performance against St Pat’s in the Cup last week. It’s a really strong Harps team and we expect a tough clash.”
Kick-off is at 19:45 in St Colman’s Park, with the game also live on LOITV.
Match Sponsor – GP Wood
