Finn Harps got their first win of the season, after a stellar performance against UCD at Finn Park. Caolon McAleer opened the scoring in the first half with a nice curling effort with his weaker foot, the crossbar came into the equation three times
Finn Harps got their first win of the season, after a stellar performance against UCD at Finn Park.
Caolon McAleer opened the scoring in the first half with a nice curling effort with his weaker foot, the crossbar came into the equation three times to keep the score 1-0 at the break.
Nathan Boyle doubled the lead after the restart with McAleer grabbing a brace after the hour as Harps stay bottom but move to within three points of UCD, who have a game in hand.
The hosts started well with Caolon McAleer seeing a lot of the ball early on.
It was the visiting side that hit on target first, but the angle was against Neil Farrugia, with Peter Burke catching.
Shortly after the 15 minute mark, Harps took the lead. Starting from the back after a good tackle on Conor Davis by Keith Cowan, the latter booted the ball forward down the right hand right for McAleer to chase, he did just that before cutting inside and curling his shot into the far corner off the base of the post.
The woodwork at either side was having an unusually busy half, Daniel O’Reilly managed to hit both, his first following a free kick from Mark Russell. While cursing the first effort, he will be thankful for the second, his sliced clearance was dropping down towards his own goal but the crossbar came to his aid.
The crossbar wasn’t quite finished just yet, shortly before the half time interval, the lively McAleer cut inside from the left, attempting to curl one into the postage stamp but the upright thwarted his effort, with Sean Boyd blasting the follow up into the side netting.
Harps took their 1-0 lead into the break.
Not long after the restart and Harps had doubled their lead.
Substitute Raff Cretaro played a searching ball from left to right, finding John Kavanagh, who laid it off nicely for Nathan Boyle to blast into the far corner.
The second goal stunned the visitors, who resorted to efforts from range but a stubborn Harps defence put their bodies on the line.
Shortly after the hour mark, the hosts netted their third.
Following a UCD corner, Harps cleared with McAleer leading the way, using his pace to get past the last defender before firing past the stretching Conor Kearns.
The last half hour of the match saw little chances as Harps looked to just see out the game, as McAleer was subbed to a standing ovation from the home crowd, being replaced by Mikey Place.
The woodwork came into action once again in stoppage time, this time to deny Jason McClelland as Harps saw out the game to record their first league win of the season, while also registering their first home clean sheet in the process.
