Dundalk’s Daryl Horgan taking praise in his stride

After having seen his side beaten by opponents for whom the 24-year-old played a starring role, Derry City boss Kenny Shiels is adamant that Daryl Horgan is good enough to play international football although, it must be said, the northerner does not seem to think too much of the international game.

“He’s a very good player,” said Shiels of the Galwayman, who has previously had spells at Sligo Rovers and Cork City, “you can’t take that away from him; he’ll probably, hopefully get a move to England, he deserves to, you can see the amount of energy that he has and the amount of work that he puts in; they’re blessed to have him and the league is blessed to have him.

“You look at (Chris) Forrester, he was quality for St Pats and this is another one; I’m confident that he can go and play for the Republic of Ireland, there’s no question in my mind about that. It’s none of my business but I’m pleased for him.”

But Shiels is pretty sure that Horgan can get himself selected by Martin O’Neill without having to follow Forrester away. “Oh yeah, without a doubt,” he says. “It’s the conditioning that is the problem, when you go to the big games, it’s just totally different.

“International football’s not what it used to be,” he continues, however. “There’s no pride in it anymore because you could have a pint of Guinness and play for Ireland, you can whatever . . . there are Italians and Scottish people playing for Ireland.

“International football doesn’t interest me one bit, not one bit. When you look at the people who can go and play. The Republic of Ireland are England reserves and Northern Ireland are England’s reserves’ reserves. It’s diabolical. I’ve no time for it all.”

Stephen Kenny is, unsurprisingly, rather less dismissive and the Dundalk boss is pleased with the recognition another one of his leading players has received from O'Neill.

“It’s good that the players are in the manager’s thoughts,” he said after Friday’s 3-1 win in which Horgan set up two of the home side’s goals and won the man of the match award. “Daryl has been brilliant.

“We have a few players who are doing really well. But we’ve got to continue to prove it. We have a tough game against Maccabi on Thursday. We have to show that we are capable of getting results at this level. We have to put in a decent performance against Maccabi.

“But it’s good that Martin’s mentioned him. It means that he’s at the forefront of his thoughts. I’m sure he’ll monitor him in the remaining Europa League games as well. Tonight he would have seen a terrific display.”

As for Horgan himself, he played down O’Neill’s suggestion that he would have actually made the preliminary squad had it not been for Dundalk’s fixture schedule but said he is pleased even to have been name-checked.

“It’s a nice thing to hear,” he said, “I didn’t expect it to be honest. It’s great to have an international manager saying things like that about a League of Ireland player. It shows how far the league has come the last while; the European games are improving the profile of all the teams, not just ourselves. Cork are doing very well as well and it’s great to have League of Ireland players being mentioned alongside (the players based in England).

“You’d like to think so if the European results improve year on year or keep at the level they’re at the minute it will show that the league is at a standard where they can compete. That’s the biggest issue with internationals, they’ve always thought that you’re not at the highest level consistently enough but at the minute, the way it’s gone, we are able to compete at that level and that shows how the league has kicked on and the professionalism right throughout has obviously improved . . . the fitness levels and the quality of players.

“I’d fancy myself to play,” he said when asked if he felt he could make the step up. “You have to back yourself. I might go in and be miles off it but I’d like to think if I went in I could do something and maybe if I played well, you never know what would happen, but I would have to be in and see what it’s all about. (Until then), I wouldn’t really have a clue.

“At the minute,” he concluded, “I’m not in the squad and that’s that. I’ve got a massive game on Thursday and that will be the plan from here on in.”