COBH Ramblers will make the longest away trip in League Of Ireland Football this Friday night when they travel to Donegal to play Finn Harps.

They do so looking to recover from the home defeat to Galway United last time out.

With results elsewhere in the First Division last weekend, Ramblers still remain in second place heading into their trip to play Harps.

Cobh have made overall a good start to the season and will look to maintain that type of form over the coming weeks and months. Earlier this week they beat Treaty United to return to the Munster Senior Cup final.

Ramblers boss Shane Keegan will be hoping his side can react positively and bounce back right away following the clash with John Caulfield’s Galway.

“The strength of the squad, we have strengthened it significantly. We have brought in half a dozen faces who have pretty much gone into the starting 11 on a fairly regular basis.

“There is just a really good camaraderie, a really good bond. Now look it is easy to say that when you are winning, so it is going to be a little bit more of a test after Friday night’s result.

"Let’s see what the body language, what everything is like over the next seven days.” 

Ramblers will hope to make the journey home from Donegal with something to show for their efforts in terms of further points on the board. This would set them up well ahead of two big back-to-back home matches against Waterford FC and Bray Wanderers.

After taking over from long-term boss Ollie Horgan, at the helm as the Finn Harps manager now is Dave Rogers.

Rogers joined the Donegal club from Nottingham Forest, where he was the U21 manager of the English Premier League side.

“Every game is a big test, you can see how close the table is,” said Rogers speaking to Highland Radio after his side’s win against Longford Town last week.

Somebody said if you get another three points we are up to fourth in the table, that is how close it is.

“But we are not looking that far, we take it each game as it comes. The big thing for me is that we are keeping clean sheets.

“The next thing now is we have got to work on our forward and creative play. It will come, we have seen it in training and we have seen little glimpses.

“Not enough is my point to the players, but we will get there. We will keep being proactive and working hard." 

In what is turning into a very competitive First Division, another close-fought affair is anticipated when these two teams clash on Friday night in Ballybofey.