Jonathon Speak is likely to be confirmed as manager of Finn Harps this evening, when he is due to meet the directors and players after the club's relegation to the first division was confirmed on Sunday. Speak had earlier been offered the job on a long-term basis, but wanted the club's league position sorted out before addressing any other issues. Now that he knows the task at hand will be winning promotion back to the top flight, he will discuss what budget would be available before discussing the future with the club's squad.
"There are a lot of things to be talked about," said Speak. "But I'm definitely interested, because the last few months have sparked a bit of life back into the club and the support we got yesterday (Sunday), even when everybody knew that we had been relegated, was tremendous."
Several key players, including Jonathon Minnock, Paddy McGrenaghan and Tom Mohan, are now out of contract, and Speak wants to get an idea of their intentions before deciding whether the money available would be enough to be competitive next season.
Most of the rest of the squad is under contract, with a number of players having re-signed or extended their deals recently. But there are question marks, including Fergal Harkin who has indicated that the pressure of being based in Dublin will make life difficult.
Cork City manager Liam Murphy may be without several first team players for next month's trip to Latvia for the first round of the InterToto Cup. The southerners are due to play the away leg of the tie on June 15th, with the return match a week later, but John Caulfield may be unavailable due to work commitments while Kelvin Flanagan is getting married on the 16th.
City have at least one and possibly two Munster Senior Cup games to play before finishing this season, and Murphy will play a mixture of first and reserve team players in that competition while giving others a short break before the start of the European preparations.
UCD must wait until the weekend before discovering who they will meet in the league play-offs, which are scheduled for next Tuesday and Friday. If Sunday's Cup final is a draw, then the second leg will be pushed back to Saturday to facilitate the replay, which will be Friday week.
Dr Tony O'Neill, meanwhile, will be remembered at Belfield Park today when Coolmine Community School and St Mary's College, Galway, meet in the Irish Schools Senior Cup final at 2.30. The winners will receive a trophy named after the former FAI general secretary, who started his career in football administration at schoolboy level.
