{"id":578138,"date":"2026-08-01T02:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578138\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T02:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:02:12","slug":"debut-defeat-for-harps-boss-mceleney-as-cork-coast-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578138\/","title":{"rendered":"Debut defeat for Harps boss McEleney as Cork coast to win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cork City spoiled Patrick McEleney’s managerial debut in Ballybofey to stretch their lead at the top of the SSE Airtricity Men’s First Division to 17 points.<\/p>\n

An unfortunate 67th minute own goal by Joel Bradley Walsh gave the Rebels the lead. Ex-Harps hitman Ruairi Keating and teenage attacker Cillian Murphy copper-fastened the win with a pair of late strikes.<\/p>\n

With just one win in their last ten, bottom-of-the-table Harps were long odds here, but they frustrated the Rebels for long spells before their resistance was eventually breached.<\/p>\n

Cork made the long trip to Donegal on the back of three successive defeats, including a 5-2 reversal at UCD last week, but Barry Robson\u2019s men are sitting pretty on the top perch – poised for an immediate top flight return.<\/p>\n

New Harps boss McEleney rang the changes for his first game in charge of the Donegal side. The 33-year-old Derry man was appointed to succeed the departed Kevin McHugh<\/a> during what has been a turbulent week in the corridors of power in Ballybofey.<\/p>\n

Conor Tourish and Oran Brogan were returned to the Harps XI and there was a debut for new signing Ciaron Harkin following his loan move from Sligo Rovers.<\/p>\n

\"Finn
\nPatrick McEleney is in intrim charge of Finn Harps<\/p>\n

During the week, McHugh and his former assistant Tommy Canning both hit out at how their respective departures were handled and communicated.<\/p>\n

McEleney, though, had stepped in and a back five set up by the ex-Derry and Dundalk midfielder stood up well to the runaway First Division leaders. The final score was certainly harsh on the hosts even if Cork did deserve to win.<\/p>\n

Rory Feely had an early attempt deflected wide while Greg Bolger was presented with a decent chance on 22 minutes, but the veteran midfielder was way off cue.<\/p>\n

Six minutes later, Finn Park sprung to life. Guilherme Rego Priosti – who netted a debut goal in last week\u2019s 2-1 defeat in Kerry – was picked out by Bernardo Monteiro, but curled into the arms of visiting ‘keeper Conor Brann after stepping into position on the edge of the area.<\/p>\n

It took a big save from Lorenzo Piaia to keep Harps on an even keel in the 33rd minute. Bolger rolled a free-kick to Darragh Crowley whose powerful drive from 25 yards was beaten away by Piaia.<\/p>\n

Closer to half time, Monteiro tried his luck from a free at the other end, but Brann wasn\u2019t troubled.<\/p>\n

\"Bernardo
\nBernardo Monteiro gets past Cork City’s Niall O’Keeffe<\/p>\n

After the break, Fiacre Kelleher headed harmlessly wide, but Cork took the lead when defender Bradley Walsh put through his own goal after Niall O\u2019Keefe and Darragh Crowley created the opening.<\/p>\n

Barely two minutes later, Piaia saved superbly from former Irish international Seani Maguire, whose looping header looked destined to double the lead. Harps\u2019 Brazilian netminder saved well from former Harps frontman Hans Mpongo soon after.<\/p>\n

Keating, who had three different spells at Harps as a player during Ollie Horgan\u2019s tenure as boss, danced inside his man before finding the bottom corner.<\/p>\n

Harps had hardly a chance to draw breath when Murphy added a third, his tidy finish giving the scoreline a gloss.<\/p>\n

Finn Harps: Lorenzo Piaia; Oran Brogan, Max Hutchison, Conor Tourish (Josh Cullen 20), Joel Bradley Walsh Darragh Coyle; Bernardo Monteiro, Tony McNamee, Ciaron Harkin, Guilherme Rego Priosti (Gavin McAteer 69); Nathan Lumingo (Bridel Bosakani53).<\/p>\n

Cork City: Conor Brann; Rory Feely Fiacre Kelleher, Charlie Lyons; Joshua Fitzpatrick (Seani Maguire 58), Greg Bolger (Niall O\u2019Keefe 58), Darragh Crowley, Conor Drinan; Cillian Murphy, Ruairi Keating, Hans Mpongo (Harry Nevin 80).<\/p>\n

Referee: Alan Patchell<\/p>\n

Second-placed Bray Wanderers fell to a very heavy 4-0 defeat to Kerry at the Carlisle Grounds.<\/p>\n

Bray were under pressure from early on as Alain Kizenga was sent off after just 25 minutes after picking up a second yellow card, and Kerry took advantage in spectacular as Vinnie Borden curled home from outside the box after 42 minutes.<\/p>\n

Sean McGrath doubled Kerry’s advantage after 57 minutes and two goals in three minutes \u2013 from Jonas Hakkinen and Cian Murphy \u2013 ensured a comfortable win for Colin Healy\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

\"Jonas
\nJonas Stjernberg of Cobh Ramblers, left, is congratulated by team-mate Dylan McGlade after netting the winner<\/p>\n

Cobh Ramblers are just six points off second place after a 1-0 home win over Wexford.<\/p>\n

The only goal of the game arrived after 32 minutes when Cobh debutant Jonas Stjernberg turned home from close range, but the credit had to go to Jordan Adeyemi who showed amazing footwork on the right wing to get into the box before firing a low ball across goal for his new team-mate to finish.<\/p>\n

One goal was also enough for Longford Town as they won 1-0 against Treaty United at the Markets Fields Stadium.<\/p>\n

Treaty had plenty of the ball in the first half but went in 1-0 down as Daragh Murtagh put the visitors ahead midway through the first half and were unable to draw level after the break.<\/p>\n

UCD were unable to leap-frog Bray into second as they drew 0-0 away to Athlone Town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork City spoiled Patrick McEleney’s managerial debut in Ballybofey to stretch their lead at the top of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-578138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}