“(It was a) special night for me after 20 weeks of injury. Loved every minute of it,” enthused Shamrock Rovers’ winger Neil Farrugia after his side’s 1-0 victory over Finn Harps at the Tallaght Stadium. Farrugia’s debut appearance in the famous Hoop
“(It was a) special night for me after 20 weeks of injury. Loved every minute of it,” enthused Shamrock Rovers’ winger Neil Farrugia after his side’s 1-0 victory over Finn Harps at the Tallaght Stadium.
Farrugia’s debut appearance in the famous Hoops colours was one of six changes made by Rovers’ Head Coach Stephen Bradley from the 0-0 draw in Sligo last week.
Farrugia showed some neat touches on the left wing before being withdrawn in the second half. The ex-U.C.D. player almost set-up a first half goal for Brandon Kavanagh, whose volley from Farrugia’s pinpoint cross flew just over the crossbar.
Harps boss Ollie Horgan boss expressed a sense of déjà vu following Greg Bolger’s 79th minute winner for the Hoops. “Greg Bolger has a habit of doing that to us. He scored a brilliant goal up in Ballybofey at the start of the year when we did something similar; we sat back behind the ball.”
Harps defended stoutly for much of the match but Horgan bemoaned the lapse that followed a phenomenal double-save by his goalkeeper Mark McGinley. “We switched off for a couple of the chances that they had and we didn’t take the couple that we had at the other end.”
“(We were) feeding off scraps and of course Shamrock Rovers had the majority, if not all, of the possession. For it to work you need to defend properly for the 90 minutes and you need to take whatever scraps you get at the other end. We did neither.”
“We’ve got to prepare for a play-off – mathematically it looks like we’re in it. We’ve got to move on very quickly. The Premier Division side hasn’t survived (in the play-off) in the last seven years. We know that we’re going to be under serious pressure. Realistically, we‘ll be be the underdogs going into this.”
“We’d have taken this with open arms,” declared Ollie of Harps’ probable place in the relegation play-off against either Drogheda or Cabinteely, “but now to get ourselves right for it is a bigger challenge again.
