Pat Hoban keen to finally become club’s top goal scorer

Ahead of the 2023 season, new Dundalk FC skipper Patrick Hoban has challenged himself to overtake the legendary Joey Donnelly as the club’s all-time leading goalscorer.

Hoban has netted 135 times in total across two spells for The Lilywhites, leaving him seven shy of Donnelly’s tally of 142 – the last of which was scored in the mid-1940s.

Loughrea native Hoban, who has impressively hit double figures in each of his seven seasons at Oriel Park, is poised to beat the late Donnelly’s long-standing record in 2023.

“I’d like to beat it,” he told The Democrat. “I’m not going to sit here and lie to you, but I’d like to beat it, sooner rather than later, so everyone can stop talking about it.

“First and foremost, getting three points on the board every week is the most important thing. It’s not just about scoring goals, it’s helping my teammates win football matches.

“Especially as a captain and a leader in the group, along with other lads as well, our job is to make sure we perform as best we can, week in, week out, so hopefully we can do that.”

Hoban would likely be even closer to the record, if not for a calf injury that saw him sit out 11 matches towards the business end of last season, but he did return for the final game at Derry City, with the 31-year-old now raring to go ahead of the new campaign.

“I feel great,” he enthused about his recovery. “I’ve been building it slowly throughout the off-season and even to the start of pre-season as well. Now I’m in a good place and hopefully I can just stay injury free now. I feel great, I feel fit, so I’m just raring to go.”

Shamrock Rovers and Derry are favourites for the SSE Airtricity League title, but Hoban is more than happy for The Lilywhites, who finished third in 2022, to go under the radar.

“Their budgets are huge compared to ours, but we have firm belief in what we do. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s each game as it comes.

“We’ll have to improve our away record massively this year and turn the draws into wins too. It’s a long season. We’ll see how it goes, but we do have the kind of underdog mentality. And you know what? I like that.”

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Dundalk open their campaign against UCD this Friday night at Oriel (kick-off, 7.45pm), but Hoban is wary of a team that took a total of four points off The Lilywhites last term.

“No game in the League of Ireland’s easy. You’re not just going to rock up and think that you win a game of football. You have to be on it from minute one in every game.

“We dropped a lot of points last year away from home, but especially when we were in leading positions as well. The draws as well kind of killed us a small bit.

“UCD at home, it’s not easy. We’ll just have to make sure we’re raring to go, and we’re ready for the start of the season, and keep ticking three points on the board as well.”