Given the fine margins of the survival battle, Ollie Horgan is well aware that Finn Harps could suffer the ultimate punishment for their leaky defence.
Harps have the second worst defensive record in the League – with 49 conceded, their goal difference stands at -21.
Horgan’s men have kept just three clean sheets this season and have shipped 11 goals in their last four games.
Relegation rivals Galway United (-7), Sligo Rovers (-14), St Patrick’s Athletic (-4) and Limerick (-9) all have much healthier goal difference columns.
Doomed Drogheda United (-34) are the only side with a worse record as Harps head into Monday’s televised meeting with Cork City with only six points separating the five teams above Drogheda.
“The quality in this Division is savage,” Horgan said.
“The League is much stronger than it was last season.
“If this was the position going into the last day of the season, it’s what I have been expecting. If it goes to goal difference, we have given a fair cut of it. If it does go that way, we will have had a decent finish to the season. Hopefully we can push it that far.
“We do have to improve and the last thing we want is to fall away.”
Harps will be without Eddie Dsane and Caolan McAleer through suspension for Monday’s game.
Following a 4-0 loss to St Pat’s at Inchicore on Friday night, Horgan said of his personnel situation: ‘A few are hurting physically and a few are hurting mentally’.
It remains unclear whether experienced midfielder Barry Molloy will be in the Harps squad. Molloy has not been in the Harps squad for the last two games. The Derry man, Horgan said, was ‘unavailable’ rather than injured, but did hint that he could return this week.
Dsane is suspended following his sending off on Friday night, but Harps will welcome Paddy McCourt back into the fold.
Harps moved to address confusion over McCourt’s recent suspension at a press conference yesterday.
McCourt and sat out both the FAI Cup game against Bohemians and Friday night’s League game at St Patrick’s Athletic following his sending off against Galway United and it has emerged that an administrative error from the FAI meant he missed two games, rather than one.
Harps were advised, in an email from the FAI’s Disciplinary Control Unit (DCU), two days before the Bohemians game, that the ex-Celtic winger would be suspended for ‘the next competitive game’.
Harps say they received additional correspondence last Monday, confirming an error, which meant McCourt would have to miss the game against St Pat’s at Richmond Park.
Harps secretary John Campbell said: “We did exactly what it said on the tin. Subsequently, we discovered that an error had been made. To rectify that error, we went to extraordinary lengths. We couldn’t have gone any further inside and outside of the FAI. We went as far as we could humanly go.”
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