Ballybofey awaits as Cork City look to maintain rhythm

The first lengthy trip to Donegal lies ahead of Cork City this evening, as the Rebel Army and their unbeaten run look to survive a 7.45pm clash with Finn Harps in Ballybofey, before attention swiftly turns to a home clash against Kerry FC on Easter Monday.

It will certainly be a chaotic weekend for Barry Robson’s team; their form has been impressive so far, but the short turnaround between games will be testing.

Tonight’s opponents Finn Harps lie fifth with nine points after seven games, trailing league leaders City by 10 ahead of tonight’s meeting. Not only have the Leesiders been in strong form in this early part of the season, but they’ve got an unbeaten run against Finn Harps that stretches back to 2010.

On that occasion it was a 1-0 home win that got Harps over the line, and while they’ve failed to pick up a win against City since, they have managed several draws, especially in Ballybofey.

City’s previous five trips to Donegal have yielded two wins and three draws, the most recent of those results being victories, one of which came in last season’s FAI Cup. Early goals from Seani Maguire and Evan McLaughlin got City motoring as they cruised to a 3-0 victory.

In fact, that 2025 season for Harps is one where they failed to live up to their reputation as a force on home soil. 

They won just five of their 18 home games, losing seven.

In 2026, though, Finn Harps have not yet been beaten at home. They’ve played three games at Finn Park so far – beating UCD before drawing with Wexford and Treaty United. Their last game was on the road, a victory over Longford Town where goalkeeper Lorenzo Piaia made nine saves and Harps profited from a Joel Bradley Walsh penalty goal in the ninth minute to win 1-0.

ROOM TO IMPROVE

Kevin McHugh’s side will be hoping to improve upon the eighth-place finish from last season, but Cork City represent a very stiff test. With a relatively clean bill of health on Leeside and Hans Mpongo set to return to face his former club, Harps will be up against it.

Gavin McAteer is a top prospect – and was on Ireland U19 duty with Brody Lee midweek – while the experienced Conor Tourish has done well in the early parts of the season. Certainly Harps will carry confidence, but whether they can scalp City or not is a different matter, even with City needing to be mindful of the two-day break to their Easter Monday clash with Kerry.

It’s still early in the season, but Robson’s grasped enough of the picture in his first seven games in charge of City to be pleased with the direction they’re heading in.

“I think the team is playing more and more, and we're bonding more,” he said after the victory over Athlone Town. “We're trying to move things and do things quicker to eliminate teams, so that's helping.

I think you can see we're an intense team, and teams are really starting to struggle against us. Even like UCD, they never played against us – they couldn't.

“We had the majority of possession,” he explained. “We're an intense team, and we're hard to match when we're at our best.

“I think we're still not probably getting the balance right, for putting a few more passes in. We don't want to make 25 passes. With the way the pitches are and teams play, we want to entertain the fans.

“I still think probably going forward, we’re trying to score too many goals. Every time we get it, we're looking for a killer pass. And that's partly my fault, because I do want them to do that,” he added. “But sometimes, we need to go one, two, then go, just to pull them out a wee bit more. But that will come.”