By Matthew Wilson
Finn Harps manager Kevin McHugh was pleased with the way that his side reacted to going behind against Wexford FC to rally back to earn a share of the spoils on Friday night.
Jake Doyle, a threat that Finn Harps had discussed in the lead up to the game, put Stephen Elliott’s side ahead after nine minutes of play.
However, the Navenny Street club responded well to the early setback and came close to drawing level on a number of occasions before Daniel Lacerda’s headed goal on 64 minutes.
Even after the equaliser, McHugh’s men continued to apply pressure to the Wexford FC backline in pursuit of a potential winner and it was an aspect of their play that the Finn Harps boss was pleased with.
“Wexford, no doubt about it, started the better. That first 10 or 15-minute period, they looked really dangerous on the counter. They were sitting on the mid-block, they counter-attacked us, which we didn’t probably expect.
“Three or four passes and they were getting in and they were getting in too easy for my liking, and the ball was coming into the box too easy and we just didn’t deal with it.”
“We spoke about it all week, (Jake) Doyle is a massive threat. He played up top for UCD last year and he always seems to cause us bother just by getting physical, he’s really good at attacking balls in the box and he did it tonight again.”
“I thought we reacted really well after that. After Corey (Sheridan) picked the ball out of the net, I don’t think he had anything to do other than maybe a couple of corners.
“Apart from that it was all us, especially in the second half. We’ve hit the crossbar, their keeper pulled off a brilliant save, we hit the post.
“It’s probably a bit like last week, you could’ve won it very easily but you could’ve lost it in the last minute or so and that’s the risk you take when we throw up two forwards to try and win the game.”
As McHugh mentioned, the hosts rolled the dice in the closing stages by throwing on two strikers in the form of Temiloluwa Ajibola and Odhran McHugh.
With the game level at 1-1, it’s a risky move but the Finn Harps manager expressed that last season’s tally of 12 draws is too much and therefore they’ve made the collective decision to try and turn some of those into wins this term.
“We talked about it in pre-season, we just drew too many games last year, and we made a decision as a staff and as players that even if it’s one each and even if we’re against the odds, we’re just going to go for the games.
“We tried to do that tonight, but it nearly caught us out, but in the end, we’ll take the point and go because Wexford are a good side and they’ll definitely be there at the top end of the league next year.”
