Special nights would be a big miss for Daryl

DUNDALK winger Daryl Horgan insists it would be hard to give up the ‘special nights’ he is enjoying at the Lilywhites if an offer came in for a move abroad.

The Galway native has continually caught the eye for Stephen Kenny’s side in recent seasons and last Thursday produced another man-ofthe-match display away to AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League.

Kenny joked in his post match press conference that he was reluctant to praise the 24-year-old because he wanted to hold on to him but the better Horgan plays the more he will be linked with a move away from Oriel Park.

Asked about such a scenario in the tunnel of the AFAS Stadion on Thursday, Horgan said he’d have to consider all offers that were made to him but admitted it would be hard to leave a club and town that has become his home in recent years.

‘ I’m playing in the Europa League. I’m not going to go and play Europa League anywhere else,’ he said.

‘If I’m lucky I could go and get a Championship club in England and never play European football again, which is something you’d have to look at as well, but it’s fantastic here.

‘Nights like tonight are fantastic and you’re not going to get them if you leave I suppose. There’s obviously other factors to consider but you have to weigh everything up. Hopefully Dundalk will want to sit down at some stage and have a discussion with me but at the minute I’m just enjoying it,’ he said of his contract situation.

Horgan said he felt Dundalk were the better side for long periods of Thursday’s game but admitted a point was a fair result given the circumstances they found themselves in a goal down and a man down near the end.

‘It was a brilliant result in the end given the circumstances of having a man sent off,’ he said.

‘It was a fantastic point but the way we played, it could have been all three really.

‘We were definitely the better side in the first half. They probably upped it a small bit in the second half but I think it was still nip and tuck.

‘Then obviously the sending off changed the game. They had already their goal scored but I thought we rallied really well and some of the defending was absolutely unbelievable and it was a massive point in the circumstances.’

While many feel Irish sides can only play one way and predicted that Dundalk would have been out of their depth in Europe, Horgan has been only too delighted to prove them wrong to date.

‘The manager has completely debunked the myth that Irish teams can only play one way and said he wants his teams to play and we have. Even with 10 men, at times we kept the ball well and for the goal it was a breakaway and if you look at it there were five lads up pressing them to get something which just shows our attacking intent as well even with 10 men.

‘A load of us played really well. The whole back four were excellent and at times we controlled the ball really, really well. All through the pitch, no one looked umcomfortable or out of their depth. They have a €23 million budget and a lovely stadium. They’re a big club with a lot of history but for a lot of the game we were a better side.

‘They’re very, very technical players and very good players but we’re at that level too. I found this year especially that we’ve played very well in Europe. We’ve looked comfortable on the ball and we’ve well deserved some of the results we’ve got.

‘We’ve beaten Champions League regulars and were a bit unfortunate not to beat Legia and then got a massive draw here tonight so I’m not having that at all.’

Now Horgan says he is targeting progression from the group.

‘The point is massive but we came into this wanting to get out of the group. We’re probably a bit disappointed we didn’t get the three points but, as I said, in the circumstances it was a very, very good point.

‘We know we can play at this level and we know we can compete so hopefully we can get a few more results like tonight,’ he said.