Well, as expected before the weekend Rodney Dullaghan, Harps fan and member of the From Behind The Nets Supporters Club has held off the competition and scooped the top prize in the inaugural Finn Harps Fantasy Footie Competition. With Niall Toner and Aidan McNelis having been favourties for so long, the Curragh man sneaked up in the last two weeks to take top spot. His inspired selection was Arsenal (213) , Bolton (137), Middlesbrough (144), Everton (145), Sunderland (221) , Wigan (206), Preston (179) and Derby (185). He could have been beaten however, as this was not quite the perfect line up, as Chelsea (238) scored more points in Group A, however 7 out of 8 ain't bad, and not one single entrant selected the perfect combination of teams to leave Rodney celebrating on Sunday. With Finn Harps having picked up their first win of the season on the previous night it was a perfect weekend for the winner.
Second place went to Sean Flanagan, who will recieve €750 despite calls for a points deduction for the Kildare man for having married into a Derry City supporting family. However, we cannot penalise him for the sins of his father-in-law so congratulations the runner up whose selection was Arsenal (213) , Aston Villa (120), Middlesbrough (144), Everton (145), Sunderland (221) , Wigan (206), Preston (179) and Derby (185). Third place goes to a man who we all thought had the title sown up a few weeks back, Niall Toner, with his selection of Man Utd (196), Bolton (137), Tottenham (138), Everton (145), Sunderland (221) , Wigan (206), Preston (179) and Derby (185). Man Utd in particular let the side down in the final weeks, hopefully €300 will be some consolation.
The fourth prize is won by Maura McCrudden, a Finn Harps Supporters Club member from Killygordon who can be found every match night working hard in the supporters club shop at Finn Park and will collect €175. The fifth prize of €75 went down to a tie breaker, with Liam Kane, Drimnaught, Newmills, Letterkenny being caught on the last day by W.McClafferty, Ballina, Falcarragh both finishing on 1375 points. The tie breaker was to predict the number of goals which would be scored in the Premiership in the season, with Liam guessing 992 and W. McClaffery's prediction 988. The correct answer emerged as 975 goals, sending the final prize to Flacarragh. Hard luck to Liam, a share of the weekly prize in Week 30 is hopefully some consolation. Finally spare a thought for the longest running leader of the competition, Mr A, who despite his spell at the top of the table never claimed a weekly prize, and finshes 9th overall. The one fatal flaw in his selection, the inclusion of Crewe (113) rather than Preston (179) costing him the overall title in the end.
Finally, the last weekly prize of the season was won by Henry McGlinchey of St Johnston with a score of 30 points in the last week. The full final table can as always be found on www.finnharps.com. Thanks again to all our entrants, 70 of you won a prize of some sort in the competition and we hope you will all try again next season and encourage your friends to enter as well. Keep your eyes on www.finnharps.com and the Donegal News for details of the new seasons competition
