Ollie Horgan
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Oliver Horgan | ||
| Date of birth | 17 February 1968 | ||
| Place of birth | Galway , County Galway, Ireland | ||
| Teams managed | |||
| Years | Team | ||
| 2007–2013 | Fanad United | ||
| 2012– | Republic of Ireland schoolboys | ||
| 2013– | Finn Harps | ||
Oliver "Ollie" Horgan (born 17 February 1968) is an Irish football manager, who is the manager of Finn Harps in the League of Ireland Premier Division. Horgan has previously managed Fanad United and the Republic of Ireland national schoolboy football team.
Horgan started his managerial career with Fanad United in the Ulster Senior League whom he led to three titles. Fanad entered an under-19 team into the inaugural 2011 season and Horgan took charge of the side until his departure from the club to join Finn Harps in 2013.
On 26 November 2013, Horgan was appointed as the surprise successor to Peter Hutton as Finn Harps new manager for the 2014 season. Horgan's appointment came as a surprise to the sporting public of Donegal, with more high profile candidates such as Joe Boyle, Don O'Riordan and Julian Dicks all confirmed to have been interested in the job.
In his first season as a League of Ireland manager, Horgan spent the year consolidating and making sure Harps would build on a youthful squad. Despite a good start to the season, Harps ended the year disappointingly in fifth position, a full seventeen points away from a play-off place. Despite the lack of success in the league, Horgan led Harps to a first FAI Cup semi-final appearance since an ill-fated run to the 1999 FAI Cup Final. Harps were drawn away to St Patrick's Athletic in Richmond Park However, the game didn't go according to plan and underdogs Harps suffered a heavy 6-1 defeat to their opponents in front of the RTÉ cameras.
The 2015 season, however, proved much more successful for Horgan's Harps. A positive start to the 2015 season saw his team unbeaten in the first twelve matches of the season, only ended by a narrow 1-0 defeat away to Athlone Town on 5 June. However, Harps recovered from this and went on to reach the end of season play-off where they beat UCD over two legs in the First Division play-off to set up a play-off final date with Limerick who finished in 11th place in the League of Ireland Premier Division. Harps came from a goal behind in the first leg tie in Markets Field to win in dramatic fashion at Finn Park via a last minute BJ Banda winner, thus sending Horgan into Harps folklore by going from First Division also-rans to Premier Division side on one of the lowest budgets in the club's history in the space of just two seasons.
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