Patrick Hoban and Louie Annesley passed fit for Dundalk
Dundalk have received a huge boost ahead of their Europa Conference League second qualifying round tie against KA Akureyri in Iceland with Gibraltar international Louie Annesley and top scorer Patrick Hoban declared fit for the game at Framvöllur (kick-off 7pm Irish time).
Both players sat out the Co Louth side’s 1-0 win over Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup on Sunday having picked up knocks in the Lilywhites’ 3-1 win over Bruno’s Magpies less than 72 hours earlier.
However, head coach Stephen O’Donnell expects to have both at his disposal when he picks his side for the first leg tie in Reykjavik.
“Everyone that travelled is fit and available,” he said on Wednesday afternoon.
“Louie and Pat will train this evening. They weren’t fit to play on Sunday but it wasn’t a long-term issue but they’re fine and good to go now.”
The Scottish pair of striker Cameron Elliott and new signing Darren Brownlie also featured late on against Rovers off the bench to add to the options available to O’Donnell ahead of what he hopes is a busy period for his side with either Club Brugge of Belgium or Aarhus of Denmark waiting in the next round.
While Dundalk are the seeded team against a KA side who eliminated Shamrock Rovers’ Champions League conquerors Breidablik from the Mjólkurbikarinn Cup just a few weeks ago, O’Donnell is expecting a stern test from Hallgrímur Jónasson’s men.
“They’re a good team and carry a big threat offensively.
“Ultimately they were probably more impressive in the last round than we were because they won 4-0 on aggregate with two 2-0 wins against Connah’s Quay. They’ll be seeing the tie the exact same as us. It’ll be a competitive tie but hopefully we’re the ones with our names in the hat come the third round,” said
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