ON THE BACK of Finn Harps’ north-west derby win over Derry City at Finn Park in March, Ciaran Gallagher had further reason to cheer.
The Raphoe man started work in Pramerica in Letterkenny, but the timing of it all meant that he lost his place for the following week’s game against the defending champions, Dundalk.
He was in training with his new employers and getting the Friday off just wasn’t a runner. In went Richard Brush and it’s taken until now for Gallagher to get his berth back, with Brush picking up a knock in the recent game against Cork City at Turner’s Cross.
“It was tough watching the boys playing and sitting there, not being involved,” Gallagher says.
“I was disappointed that I lost my place, but it was just a case of keeping the head down and working hard in training.
“To play against Derry, get a win over them and then not even be in the squad for the next game was very tough, but it’s just part of the game, especially with local football. I just needed to be ready for when the chance would come up again.
“I was delighted to get a start again last week in Wexford.”
[adrotate group=”38″]Gallagher spent 2014 at Derry City, but having been unable to take the number 1 shirt off Gerard Doherty he returned to Finn Park that winter again.
It’s six years now since he had a trial at Ipswich Town and was due to go back, having impressed playing for Harps against the Tractor Boys in a friendly in Ballybofey, only for Roy Keane’s sacking to scupper those hopes.
Gallagher is back now in full-time employment and part-time football.
“The people in Pramerica have been very good to me and very supportive,” he says.
“Everyone understands my situation. The day before the Dundalk game, I had a fair idea that it wouldn’t work.
“I was in a training phase at that stage, but since I finished training they’ve been very good in letting me away. They’re very accommodating and the team leader is very understanding.
“I’m just not in a position to go football full-time at the minute so I had to look for work and I’m lucky enough to have got a job. A lot of people aren’t that lucky these days.”
Gallagher kept 19 clean sheets last season as Harps won promotion back into the top flight, the Donegal club taking their place in the Premier Division again for the first time since 2008.
Gallagher was a key cog in the wheel last season.
[adrotate group=”37″]His clean sheets set the tone for the promotion bid that ended with that last, dramatic, glorious November night and BJ Banda’s now-iconic extra-time goal against Limerick FC.
Eyebrows raised, then, when Ollie Horgan confirmed the signing of Brush in the winter. The former Sligo Rovers and Shamrock Rovers ‘keeper was a proven Premier Division player and it was one position that Harps looked solid enough in without acquisitions.
It’s proved a fortunate signing in recent weeks.
“Brush has been around a long time and he brings a lot of experience – he’s been brilliant,” says Gallagher.
The two have been working under Paddy Hannigan and Damien Bradley and the competition for places is something that really has the bit between Gallagher’s teeth.
He says: “I thrive off these things. Brushy went in, done very well but he picked up a knock and now it’s up to me to keep the place. I’m under no illusions: If I don’t perform, I’ll be out the door as quick as I went in.”
Harps enter tomorrow night’s game against Bohemians with eleven points from their first ten games and are five points above the drop zone.
“We have made a good, solid start, but we actually feel like we should have more points,” Gallagher says.
“We just have to build on what we have now. There’s no good in this good start if we fall away in the next couple of series of games. It’ll be tough and it will get tougher.
“Teams will improve and we have to improve too.
“A lot of people will have expected us to have had a lot less points than we have. We’ve got a tough run of games, so every point is vital. You can go a couple of games getting nothing, but it’s all about how you respond then.
[adrotate group=”46″]“Any point away from home is a bonus. The home games are the key, though. If we can get good home form we won’t be far away from staying up.”
Harps drew 1-1 with Wexford last week in a real game of two halves in what was Gallagher’s first League start since the win over Derry.
He says: “We were comfortable on Friday. I was disappointed to concede the goal. We’ve conceded a couple of soft goals so far this season and it was something that we didn’t do too much last year. We need to tighten up here now going forward.”
A game against Bohemians, a point beneath Harps in the table, draws to an end the first third of the season.
Gallagher says: “This is a massive game for us. It’d be nice to finish the first round of games on a high. Bohs will be tough. They’ve got some quality players but it’s like any game for us – we’ll prepare as best we can and hope that we can make ourselves hard to beat and get something out of this.”
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