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By Ivan Hurley
KERRY make the nearly 830km round journey to the hills of Donegal this coming Friday evening (kick-off 7.45pm ) to face Finn Harps in Ballybofey.
The Kingdom go to the Northwest on a three-game-unbeaten run, the first time in the club’s history. Back-to-back league draws against Athlone Town AFC and Cobh Ramblers have Kerry FC 9th in the SSE Airtricity First Division table.
Last year’s top goal scorer Ryan Kelliher got himself on the scoresheet for the first time in 2024 last week and the Killarney man will be hoping to add more goals to his name on Matchday 6.
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Finn Harps have started the season in a rich vein of form and impressively came back from a goal down to beat Wexford FC by 2 goals to 1 in Ferrycarrig Park.
A win for the Donegal side could see them sit on top of the table come 10pm on Friday having recorded wins against Athlone and Longford along with an impressive draw with league favourites Cork City on matchday 2.
McCarthy’s charges will be buoyed by Cobh’s 1-0 win in Donegal two weeks ago as the Kingdom go in search of three points which would catapult Kerry FC up the table at the early stages of the season.
Two of Kerry FC’s main men in 2024 played for the Donegal side in 2023. Winger Daniel Okwute played for Harps on loan from Stockport County for the opening months of last season and even faced his home town club Kerry twice while playing for Finn Harps before he secured a move home in July last year.
Kerry’s shot-stopper Antonio Tuta also played for Finn Harps last term. The Croatian moved to Ireland in August and produced some fine saves to deny Kerry a point on our last trip to Ballybofey.
Tuta signed for Kerry in the winter transfer window and quickly became the Kingdom’s number 1 between the sticks.
In his pre-match press conference, First Team Coach James Sugrue reported no fresh injury concerns ahead of the game tomorrow night.
Jack Kavanagh, who is yet to feature for Kerry in the league is back training and it will be a question of time for him if he is to make his debut.
Valerii Dolia remains unavailable as he recovers from a foot injury but is getting closer to a return every week. Nathan Gleeson is also set for a spell on the sidelines as he waits for an infection to clear.
“Darren Murphy is doing some great work there,” said James Sugrue. “I had a good conversation with him last year, he’s a good lad. He has the team working together. It’s easy to see Ballybofey is a tough place to go, the players work really hard for each other.
“So I’ve said to our boys we have to be ready for a battle. I’ve played up there a good few times and it’s intimidating to go and if you’re not ready for that battle up there you are in for a rough night. It’s the type of game that makes teams, we have to win our individual battles, second balls and if you can get a result up there it should really drive us on,” added Sugrue.
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