Late agony for United in away clash with Finn Harps

Galway United 0

Finn Harps 1

WITH just seconds left to play in Donegal it was all looking reasonably well for Shane Keegan and his troops, a well-earned point on the road taken from one of the toughest venues to play football in the country.

That was until an old face came back to haunt the Laois man as Jesse Devers, a player whom Keegan had noted in his first ever interview with Tribune Sport back in January 2017 that he was looking forward to developing, hit United with a remarkable last gasp winner to steal a crucial three points for Finn Harps.

Sitting by the corner flag with his management team long after the full time whistle on Monday night, Keegan looked a dejected and deflated figure as he and his coaching staff tried to contemplate what they had just witnessed.

“I’m simply sick. It’s one of the toughest results I’ve ever had to take. I’m not exaggerating when I say the goalkeeper hasn’t actually had to make a save and to then get hit with a sucker punch like that is just a killer.”

Ollie Horgan’s side are masters of grinding out big results when up against it, especially when playing on home soil and the Galway manager was full of praise for their ever present will to win.

“If they have one thing going for them it is that they are always plugging and plugging. I saw them the week before last against Longford and Longford dominated the game far more than we did tonight and Harps managed to win that too. They know how to stay in a game and know how to sneak a goal. They’ve done it again tonight and I’m scratching my head as to how it’s happened.”

It was the Tribesmen who came closest to breaking the deadlock on 19 minutes, Ryan Connolly chasing down a through ball and managing to dink it over the head of an onrushing Ciaran Gallagher, but it just went wide of the target.

Four minutes later a brilliant ball over the top from Connolly found Carlton Ubaezuonu, whose pace got the better of defender Aidan Friel, and it took a tremendous save from Gallagher to tip his effort over the crossbar.

Full coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune.