Stubborn Harps gatecrash Keane’s return

IT was back to where it all began for Roy Keane last night.

Twenty years after he made his senior football debut at this very venue – playing for Cobh Ramblers in a 3-1 loss to Finn Harps in a League of Ireland game in September 1989 – Keane returned to Finn Park in his new role as manager of Ipswich Town.

If it was a low-key occasion then, in truth it wasn’t a whole lot more glamorous last night, as a deluge contributed to a smaller than expected turn out of about 1,200 for the latest appearance on home soil of an Irish sporting icon.

The young Donegal fans might have been eager to queue up to get their autographs signed pitchside before kick off – and Keane, as ever, was happy to oblige.

But you suspect that his Munster heartland will provide a bigger and more rapturous welcome when he returns with his Ipswich team for friendly games against Waterford United and Cork City later this month.

However, two decades on from his debut here as a young Rambler, there was to be no redemption in Donegal for Keane, as Ipswich ended up the wrong end of a surprise 2-1 scoreline, but one thoroughly merited by the mid-table First Division team.

Still, the game was also a milestone for another Cork man, Damien Delaney making his debut for Ipswich after his recent move from QPR.

Ipswich wore their change strip of all red for the occasion and had red faces to match after just over 20 minutes of combative opening exchanges, when Harps took the lead through a close-range Shaun Houston header.

Harps’ disciplined defence, which had repeatedly sucked Ipswich into their offside trap, finally cracked just before the hour mark when 17-year-old ‘keeper Ciaran Gallagher upended Liam Trotter in the box and substitute Conor Wickham stepped up to smash the ball home from the spot.

But just when Ipswich seemed to be taking the initiative, Harps broke the length of the field from the resultant corner with Marc Brolly fastening on to Fintan Bonner’s pass and finding the bottom corner of the net via a deflection off Bruce for the winner.