Finn Harps dressing room simply isn’t a place to feel selfish in - Sean O’Donnell

Sean O’Donnell says he wants to be one of the first names on the Finn Harps team sheet but understands right now why he’s not. 

The tricky Carndonagh winger is having to bide his time on the fringes but exciting cameos remain a real reminder of just how good he is. 

O’Donnell explains that there is a real togetherness right now between the four blue walls of the original home dressing room on Navenny Street and no one would dare to interrupt that. 

O’Donnell says Darren Murphy as well as the squad’s core group of senior players are guiding all that along nicely. 

Nine games in - the first real threshold in the season - and Harps are sitting second in the standings, with 18 points pinned to the board. 

Cork City, pre-season favourites to win the First Division outright,  lead the way on 21. Having led 1-0 at home to UCD last Friday night, O’Donnell insists the gap should only be a single point. 

However, he admits that’s a good headspace to be right now - disappointed to be dropping points against First Division opposition of that calibre.  

“We were disappointed on Friday but if we’d been offered seven points from nine on offer last week, we’d have taken that. We’ll just learn from it and move on”.

Given just how poor things got last term under Dave Rogers, the contrast at this moment means Harps are certainly exceeding many’s initial expectations.  So what is Darren Murphy doing that’s having this effect? 

“Darren has a way about him that makes you want to give him everything,” O’Donnell explains. “He’s a top man and a really good fella and that counts for a lot. 

“In a deliberate sort of way, he lets the players take on a lot of responsibility. And he wants you to go and express yourself. 

“The senior lads like Tony McNamee, Tim Heimer and Dave Cawley, they have an input as well. Nine games in, we’re happy with where we’re at but we have to push on now and make sure the levels don’t drop”.

O’Donnell was once again sprung from the sidelines with 20 minutes to go against William O’Connor’s ‘Students’ but, in the end, the Ballybofey outfit had to settle for a share of the points.

He’d love to be starting games right now but at 19, and with the side performing as it is, he has to sit tight. But when his chance does come, and it definitely will, he says he’s ready to grab it.   

“Last year, to be fair, it did give a lot of us young lads exposure at that level that we might not have got. At the start, under Dave, I didn’t really play but in the second-half of the season I seen good minutes. We went six or seven games unbeaten at the time.

“I suppose the one thing you could take away from it, on reflection, was that I could hold my own at that level. 

“And listen, I want to play. But I was injured for the first game or two. I got back but the side there was doing well. So I understand you have to bide your time.  You can’t drop lads that are winning games. 

“At the moment, it’s about making the most of the time that comes your way. It’s not a dressing room right now where you complain or look to be selfish in”.

O’Donnell is a first-year Sports and Exercise student at ATU Donegal. And the nature of the course work there and the hours, means he’s flexible when it comes to his commitments with Finn Harps. 

“I’m lucky that college allows me that wriggle room. You have assignments and coursework that I work around. There is a good balance there and the lecturers and the people behind the scenes at Harps are really good with all of that.  

“It’s still a juggle of sorts but it’s very manageable. I know some of the other lads that work full-time would find that balance much harder. So I’m fortunate with all of that”. 

This coming Friday night, Harps are back on the road as they go to seventh-placed Athlone Town. 

O’Donnell and his teammates dealt comfortably enough with their weekend opponents, first time around, back at the start of March with a 2-0 home win in Finn Park.

“From this point on you’re familiar with every side. It’s a good juncture to sort of gauge where you’re at. We got the win against them already but you can’t look at games like that”. 

Coming up for air and surveying the League of Ireland second tier landscape, O’Donnell says there is no reason why Harps can’t be ambitious with their aims from here on in. 

“I think we obviously have to be aiming for promotion now and I genuinely think we can push up on the top or middle end of that top-five. 

“We’d love to push Cork a lot of the way. But like I said, a lot can happen yet. It’s so early. 

“Cork have serious resources so they are still the big favourites. But we drew with them already and they’ve dropped points elsewhere. I don’t think you’re going to have a scenario like Galway last year where they ran away with it. 

“There are a good few sides that will feel they can nip at their heels.  From first to fifth, I don’t think there is much between any of the sides right now”.

The player says he’d love to help fire Harps back to the Premier Division this season and test himself in that sort of environment. 

He often stood on the terraces, “behind the ALDI goals”, as a youngster as Ollie Horgan’s unfashionables frequently upset some of the country’s best sides.   

“I think you have to be enjoying your football and if you get that confidence then you want to go and show it. No matter where I play, my first instinct is to get the ball down and take someone on. 

“Sometimes it comes off and sometimes it doesn’t. Like, you’d love to make that step up and play in the Premier Division. The young lads here would love a taste of that. The place was buzzing those nights. 

“Harps held their own there for long enough. Look at Mark Coyle now and what he’s doing at Shelbourne. Damien Duff was comparing his influence to Rory Keane. 

“And Mark has probably been the best player in that league so far. So that is just one example. 

“His brother Darragh is another to look out for now here. He’s really impressive in training. So for the young lads in our squad, we’d love to go on, in the future, and sample that. But right now, we have enough to contend with”.