How shock choice Felix Healy took Finn Harps to First Division glory: 20 years on

On the May Bank Holiday Monday in 2004, Felix Healy and Paul Hegarty were guests at the wedding of Derry City striker Gary Beckett in Enniskillen.

Their phones buzzed not long after one another. Peter Toner was anxious to speak to them both.

The then Finn Harps Chairman had a vacancy to fill following the departure of Noel King the previous weekend.

Harps had only lost once in their opening six games but King stepped down saying he couldn’t give the role the necessary commitment.

Various names were linked to the role, Roddy Collins and Jimmy McGeough particularly prominent, but it was to Healy - who just seven years previously managed their arch foes Derry City to the Premier Division title - that Harps turned in a seismic move.

It was a brave roll of the dice by Harps, who had lost promotion-relegation play-offs in each of the previous three seasons. Six months later, the decision was vindicated as Harps clinched the First Division title via a 3-0 win over Dundalk on the final night of the season.

“I was very much aware of what it meant to supporters,” Healy says now, 20 years on. “That was one thing I really became aware of: How much a night like that actually means to people.

“There will have been young people that night experiencing something like that for the first time and it’s one they’ll remember for the rest of their days. I often say that when things like that happen, take everything in because here we are, in the blink of an eye, 20 years have gone by.”

Kevin McHugh was at the peak of his goalscoring prowess in those years when Harps were battling to get out of the First Division. The Killea man hit the 21st and 22nd goals of his season as Harps secured the silverware in front of 4,000 at Finn Park.

“Finn Park was rammed that night,” McHugh, now the Head of Academy at the club, says. “There was no pressure on us, though. That was a massive plus point from Felix; he was really, really good at not putting pressure on players.

“Felix was a master of getting the best out of players, but not putting pressure on them. Sometimes in the dressing room wouldn’t even have talked about the game. Felix was so good at that and it was the same that night against Dundalk.

“Outside the group, people were reminding us that it was 50 years since Harps won the FAI Cup in 1974 and they were saying how it was the next biggest night since then. Things were getting real when you heard the likes of that. It was a massive night for the club.”

Harps endured agony when losing a play-off on penalties in 2001 to Longford. A scintillating hat-trick by McHugh on a raucous night by the Finn fell short when Longford prevailed on penalties.

Galway United got the better of Harps in a play-off the following season and in December 2003 they were pipped by Derry City in extra time on a night when drama was on the edge of a blade at the Brandywell.

Healy’s Harps won promotion thanks to a 0-0 draw at Monaghan United on October 29 - but the coup de grace was still up for grabs.

After losing 1-0 at title rivals UCD at the end of September, Harps didn’t lose again for the rest of the season, winning seven of their final eight games, including 4-1 and 5-1 away wins at Limerick Galway and a 6-0 hammering of Athlone Town at Finn Park.

“After getting promoted, it was sort of a free hit to win the League,” McHugh says., “One thing about that group, it was a very tight-knit bunch. We socialised together and we trained together. The majority of us lived locally, no-one ever missed a session and we had such a good spirit.

“Sometimes you can get lucky and a manager comes along who can just fit exactly with what’s required - we got that with Felix. He came in, saw had a decent squad and he put his own stamp on it and it worked a treat.

“One thing Felix did, it didn’t matter who you were, what you were or where you were from, if you did well, you stayed in. He was very brave that way - and it worked.”

Among King’s recruits in 2003 was Eloka Asokuh, who was on the Nigerian squad that won the Under-17 World Cup in Japan in 1993, playing alongside the likes of Nwankwo Kanu Celestine Babayaro and Wilson Oruma.

Through contact between his cousin, John O’Sullivan in Dublin and Ballybofey man Columba Moss, Asokuh wound up at Finn Park.

Initially, he questioned his decision as he peeked from the curtains on a soaking Saturday in 2003. He remains in Ballybofey to this day.

“Winning the League was brilliant,” he says. “Our unity that year was so good. I really enjoyed playing for Harps. It is a long, long time ago now. This is my second home. I love it here.”

Asokuh also credits the methods of Healy - who played for Northern Ireland at the 1982 World Cup in Spain - with getting the best out of him.

“He made me work hard,” he says. “Felix made me push myself to the limit. I didn’t know what he was doing, but he was challenging me and working my brain. He didn’t want to just say: ‘You are a good player’. He made me work so hard and I loved that.”

An able squad hit the crossbar in three successive seasons, but with James Gallagher keeping 17 clean sheets - including five-in-a-row at the end of the season - in all competitions, Harps provided formidable opponents.

Youngsters Chris Breen, Michael Funston and Shaun McGowan became central figures under Healy.

“The young players weren’t afraid of the big occasions,” Healy says. “When I took the job, I felt that we would be in with a decent shout. Sometimes we had to ask the kids to be men and they showed that they were more than capable. We had old dogs for the hard road too, it was a good mix.”

Marking the 50th anniversary of the FAI Cup win in ’74, Harps commissioned a special jersey for the night of the Dundalk game.

The old ground was heaving when Ballybofey-born Shane Bradley opened the scoring, firing home from a Tom Mohan cross.

“Shane was very underrated,” McHugh says, “We had loads of those players. People think that ‘Rita’ is 6’3” or 6’4” but he’s just 5’10” with such a leap on him. He was so good in the air and a brilliant finisher. As a club, we don’t give the likes of Shane Bradley enough credit. Sometimes people just don’t see enough that those players were the heart and soul of Finn Harps.”

McHugh doubled the lead in the 72nd minute before gliding through a raft of Dundalk players to cap a glorious night with a stunning goal.

“I can’t remember where I last saw the footage, but I was like: ‘Jesus Christ, that’s a good goal!” McHugh says. “That was probably one of my best goals. Mind you, there weren’t too many where I beat half a team to score.”

Barely 24 hours after being appointed as he toasted Beckett’s nuptials, Healy took charge of Harps in a low-key League Cup game against Derry. Trevor Scanlon aided him that night and a 2-0 defeat didn’t break their stride as a 1-0 away win at Monaghan got them off and running three days later.

“It was a crazy week,” Healy says having been thrust in earlier than expected when caretaker manager Sean ‘Wizard’ McGowan left.

“That night in the Brandywell was just about getting it over and then getting to work.

“There was a sense from the Board that there was too much player power at the time and too much of an old boys brigade.

“To me, it wasn’t rocket science why they had lost so many play-offs. Whether people agree or not, the dynamic of that dressing room had to change. Sometimes that is just part and parcel of life at a football club.

“I brought in Ian Rossiter to give us a different vibe and Anthony Gorman came in too; he had been around the block and brought a different mentality from what existed.

“Those young guys were brilliant. I gave them chances. Chrissy Breen was sensational. He really could have been a top player.

“If Chrissy had scored more goals, he could have played for Manchester United, but he didn’t half make goals. He made the pitch bigger when we had the ball and he had so many assists that season it almost wasn’t true.”

Among Healy’s early wins was a 4-2 win at Cobh Ramblers. McHugh bagged a hat-trick in front of 400 paying supporters on a night when 2,000 people queued outside St Colman’s Park to get tickets for a friendly match between the Ramblers and Manchester United.

Healy rebuffed an offer to rejoin Derry City in the summer of ’04, at the time noting that he felt he owed Harps a degree of loyalty.

Only five years previously, Harps lost a three-game FAI Cup marathon against Bray Wanderers before being relegated in 2001. Declan Boyle, who captained Harps to the Cup final, was also the skipper in 2004 and took receipt as the rain teemed down on the old ground.

“That group was together for such a long time and we stuck together after missing out in play-offs and the shadow of losing the Cup was still there too” Boyle says. “It was a good collective and people drove each other on. It was a really good time and it was great to get the honour of lifting the trophy.

“There was a big crowd back at Finn Park and we were looking forward to the Premier Division. There was also real relief that night because, although we had won promotion, we were targeting the League title and UCD pushed us all the way.”

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A week after winning the First Division, Healy met the Harps Board to learn his budget for the top flight return. His heart and mind became locked in a battle and by the end of the next season he left the role to be replaced by Anthony Gorman.

“It was the old thing of being careful of what you wish for,” Healy says. “It was very frustrating. From my point of view, I had said at the outset ‘if I go here and we happen to win then I’ll leave because I’m on a hiding to nothing after that’.

“I knew that we wouldn’t survive in the Premier Division. It was too big of a big step up for the younger players and the older players.”