Paddy McCourt made his first appearance for Finn Harps in a narrow loss to First Division Cabinteely at Stradbrook today.
Cabinteely FC 1 Finn Harps 0
The 33-year-old former Celtic winger is close to agreeing terms and signing with Harps, as revealed by Donegal Daily yesterday.
Six days out from the new season, Ollie Horgan deployed the Derry native – who has been on the look-out for a new club since parting ways with Glenavon before Christmas – in his starting XI.
McCourt trained with the club this week and would be seen as a real bluechip signing by Harps, who host Cork City in Ballybofey on Friday night.
McCourt and Harps – who work off a budget dwarfed by all of their Premier Division rivals – are keen to come to an arrangement and the player’s presence today certainly heightens the possibility of his inclusion for the 2017 season.
Barry Molloy played the first half today. Having been believed to have retired at the end of the 2016 campaign, Molloy returned to training again and yesterday the Harps secretary, John Campbell, confirmed on his own Facebook page that the midfielder been ‘signed by Finn Harps for over two weeks’.
Kieran ‘Marty’ Waters broke the deadlock for Cabinteely in the first half and his strike proved the only goal of the game.
Bobby Vaughan, a trialist, played the second half for Harps and he went close in the second half, while Jonny Bonner also had a chance of an equaliser, with BJ Banda firing off the crossbar late on.
Finn Harps: Ciaran Gallagher; Ethan Boyle, Packie Mailey, Killian Cantwell, Ciaran Coll; Paddy McCourt, Barry Molloy, Jonny Bonner, Sean Houston; Danny Morrissey, Ciaran O’Connor.
Subs: Gareth Harkin, Damien McNulty and Bobby Vaughan for Mailey, Molloy and Morrissey; Nathan Clifford for Houston; BJ Banda, Thomas McMonagle and Dylan McGroary for McCourt, Cantwell and O’Connor.
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