Finn Harps

In the summer of 1976 a side from a Donegal market town went to the Baseball Ground. Two years later Everton did it more tidily, 10–0 over two legs. Finn Harps kept going back anyway.

They had earned those nights. The FAI Cup came in 1974, beaten finalists St Patrick's Athletic on the wrong end of a 3–1, and it remains the only major trophy in the cabinet. The club had been in the League of Ireland for five seasons by then, admitted in 1969 after years in the junior game around Ballybofey.

Finn Park was bought in 1956 for £350 and the club has never played anywhere else. That figure has aged well; the ground less so. Fewer than 400 of its places are seats, and the rest of the crowd stands. A replacement was meant to rise at Stranorlar, a mile up the road — work started on the Donegal Community Stadium in 2008 and the money ran out. Harps still play on the old pitch by the river.

The club has belonged to its supporters since 1996, when it reconstituted itself as a co-operative. Ollie Horgan took charge in the years after that and got the side back into the Premier Division in 2015, which in a town of a few thousand people counts as the hard part.

What has not happened is a league title. The First Division was won in 2004 under Felix Healy, and promotion has come and gone since, but the top flight has never been theirs, and no European tie has yet reached a second round.