DUFFY: FOCUS ALL ON HARPS
Dundalk Finn Harps Oriel Park, 4pm
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MICHAEL DUFFY says Dundalk must forget about their European ambitions for now as they face another Finn Harps conundrum.
The Lilywhites stuffed Welsh side Newtown 5-0 on aggregate in the Europa Conference League and will host Estonia’s Levadia Tallinn next week.
Wing wizard Duffy scored the only goal of the second leg in Wales on Tuesday but insists the only focus now is on Harps.
The Donegal side head for Oriel Park having won at the same venue earlier this season before holding Dundalk to a point in Ballybofey.
Duffy said: “Finn Harps have been hard for us this year and even back last year we didn’t beat them at Oriel so we know what to expect on the day and what they do.
“They beat us at Oriel earlier in the season and we weren’t happy with that but this is now and we have got a bit of form going - we are more consistent right now.
“We want to carry that European form into the game today. It’s important that we keep the league form up and hopefully we can go on a good run.”
Vinny Perth is attempting to steady the ship at Dundalk in his second spell in charge and the European win was confidence boosting.
Duffy said: “They were difficult to play against but we got the job done which is what we wanted. We wanted to win both matches home and away, so it was good to do that.
“It’s not often that you win both matches so we’re happy with that - it was a professional performance for us and it’s great to get through to the next round.
“We’ve another round to look forward to and it’s going to be tough.
There’s no easy games in Europe but we’ll look at it when the time comes.”
Harps are in freefall and are without a win in their last seven games and boss Ollie Horgan said: “Oriel Park is a very difficult place to go at the best of times.
“We’ve been on the wrong end of a few beatings there over the years. They have plenty of quality in the squad and they’ll be eager to start moving up the table.
“We’ll need to be at our very best to have a chance of coming away with anything but we’ll take a cut off it and see what happens.”
Kosovar Sadiki returns from suspension for Harps but Johnny Dunleavy, Mark Coyle and Ryan Rainey are doubts. Assistant manager Paul Hegarty serves a touchline ban.