Blues - Waterford United FC Programme v Finn Harps Friday 25th April 2014 | Page 7

Welcome evening’s visitors to the RSC
to Finn Harps
This

KEY PLAYER: PAT McCANN
A fair part of Harps’ good start to the
new campaign can be put down to
the continuing presence in the middle
of the park of 23-year-old New
Yorker Pat McCann, first signed by the
Northwesterners after an impressive
trial in July of last year. A committed,
driving midfielder, always looking to
get forward, and with a powerful strike from distance, the
fourth generation American, whose great-great-grandparents
hailed from Donegal, took to League football from the off,
scoring twice in eight appearances to the end of the season,
and he has continued where he left off this year, notching
three times already in the first series of League games.
ONE TO WATCH: RUAIRÍ KEATING
Another already well on the goal
trail for Harps, with three in all
competitions, is pacy young forward
Ruairí Keating, on loan from Sligo
Rovers until July. An exciting prospect,
still only 18 years old, the Mayo
youngster was top scorer for the Bit
o’ Red’s U19 side in the season just
concluded, despite his campaign being curtailed as he signed
a pro contract in January and was almost immediately loaned
to the Donegal outfit to gain vital League experience. An
all round striker, Ruairí has the pace, control and finish to
threaten any defence, and showed outstanding confidence for
his age to dispatch an equalising penalty with five minutes to
go at home to Wexford two weeks ago.
LEGEND: BRENDAN BRADLEY
Synonymous with Finn Harps, and
indeed with the League of Ireland in
the 1970s, Brendan Bradley’s impact
on the domestic soccer scene continues
to this day. The Derryman was there
at the start of Harps’ league journey,
signed from the Candystripes’ reserve

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side for £100 in 1969, and he finished League top scorer
in two of his three seasons at Finn Park, before former Blue
David Herd brought him to Lincoln City in July 1972. After a
flying start, a downturn in the club’s fortunes, the arrival of
new boss Graham Taylor, and a growin