Dundalk FC assistant manager Darius Kierans believes that young central midfielder Conor McDonald has “a great future ahead of him”, after the Blackrock native made his first-team debut at just 16 against Saint Patrick’s Athletic at Oriel Park last Friday night. At 16 years and 101 days, McDonald made his bow aged 206 days younger than when Nathan Murphy made his first senior appearance in September 2009. And Kierans is confident that the “intelligent” youngster “can definitely play at a higher level”.
Opportunity
“Martin Connolly and Alan Browne brought him into the club,” Kierans told dundalkfc.com. “We watched the U18s playing Drogheda a couple of weeks ago when they did very well. We had a friendly match between our U18s and U19s last week and Conor was probably the best player on the park. He is very young and he has to develop physically, but with the injury crisis in the first team, it was a good opportunity to give him a debut. He has a great future ahead of him. He has plenty of ability and we have belief in him that he can definitely play at a higher level.
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