Daryl Horgan dreaming of more glory with Lilywhites

Dundalk FC fended off clubs from England and Scotland in the race to acquire Daryl Horgan, who made his emotional return to The Lilywhites at the beginning of the month.

The 31-year-old Galwegian netted 27 times in 132 appearances across his first spell at Oriel Park (2014-16), from which The Lilywhites won three consecutive SSE Airtricity League championships, an FAI Cup in 2015, on top of a League Cup triumph in 2014.

However, it was his performances in Dundalk’s historic run to the Europa League group stages in 2016 that earned him a move to the English Championship with Preston North End, as well as into the Republic of Ireland set-up, where he has scored once in 17 caps.

Horgan also spent time in the Scottish Premiership with Hibernian, before making a return to England with Wycombe Wanderers, but following their relegation to League One, spent the final six months of his contract out on loan at Stevenage in League Two.

On his time cross-channel, he reflected: “If you were to say to me going over that I was going to play about 80 games in the Championship, play in the SPL, play in a League One play-off final, play 17 times for Ireland and score, I’d have taken your hand off.

“Reflecting on my whole time in England, it was mostly brilliant,” he continued. “I suppose it’s the end that’s a bit crap, the last six months was a tough time.

“I was part of a promotion, but it was a tough time for me personally football wise. But overall, I loved it, played for some massive clubs and had some massive occasions. It was amazing.”

Now back in Dundalk with a young family, Horgan played the first game of his second spell in the recent 1-1 draw with Shelbourne at Oriel, impressing many with his first-half display, before starting again the following week in a 1-0 home win over Sligo Rovers.

His first goal since returning arrived four minutes from time in last Friday night’s 1-0 Sports Direct FAI Cup second-round win over Bray Wanderers at the Carlisle Grounds.

In the quarter-finals of the FAI Cup, and eight points behind Premier Division leaders Shamrock Rovers, where Dundalk travel to this Friday night (kick-off, 7.45pm), Horgan hopes the current crop of players can emulate previous successes in the coming seasons.

“This is a really, really good side with a lot of very talented young players and a lot of lads who have come to the league new.

“It’s not easy making that jump at any time, but there are a lot of very talented boys and a good core group of senior boys.

“You can mix that together and obviously the way the manager wants to work, and how he wants things to go, I can very clearly see that going in an upward trajectory in the next little while.

“Obviously right now the commitment is this season. We can worry about next season the year after that. But this season, we want to do as well as we possibly can because there is so much to play for. We have a massive game on Friday and that’s the aim now.”

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Dundalk’s number 15 concluded: “I want Dundalk to be successful, I want to play big games in Europe, I want to try and get back in the Ireland squad, I want to win leagues and cups – that’s what Dundalk has been built on.

“That’s what I would like to strive for us to be again. There are 30 other lads in there who are thinking the exact same thing.”