Bruno’s Magpies v Dundalk: Gibraltar side an unknown quantity for Lilywhites

Europa Conference League

Bruno’s Magpies v Dundalk

Victoria Stadium, Gibraltar

Thursday, 5pm, (Irish time)

Dundalk head coach Stephen O’Donnell has warned his side not to take Bruno’s Magpies for granted when the sides meet in their Europa Conference League first qualifying round, first leg tie at Victoria Stadium on Thursday.

The Gibraltar outfit was formed only a decade ago in Bruno’s Bar, where many of the 300-strong Lilywhite supporters will gather before the game, but secured a 2-1 first-leg win over Northern Irish side Crusaders on their European debut last summer.

There has been much change at the club since then. Nathan Rooney, the man who guided them to their first ever Rock Cup — Gibraltar’s premier cup competition — in April, has since departed with former Real Murcia assistant Alfonso Cortijo coming in, as well as 10 new signings.

With only one pre-season fixture to go on — a 0-3 defeat to Preston North End in Murcia last week — O’Donnell admits it is hard to know what to expect from their opponents.

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“It’s very hard to know what to expect,” said the 37-year-old. “We only have one game to go off with the new coach and there’s a lot of new players. We only saw them against Preston. They made a lot of changes at half-time but up until then they were very competitive in the game and it was 0-0.”

‘Tough game’

O’Donnell added: “They had chances as well so it’s very hard to know what to expect but when you’re unsure of a starting team or how they’re going to go about it with a new coach and new signings, really you just have to hone in on what you’re looking to achieve in and out of possession. They’re a good team though. Against Preston, they were very fast on the counter. They’ve good attacking players and had a lot of chances, particularly in the first half. It’s going to be a really tough game for us tomorrow.”

Another factor for the Louth side to deal with is the 31-degree heat scheduled for kick-off time.

“It’s obviously a massive factor,” said O’Donnell. “I envisage the game being quite slow in tempo because it’s nigh on impossible for the game to be 100mph in the heat.”

John Martin is a doubt for the Lilywhites with a minor knock while Keith Ward, Cameron Elliott, Robbie Benson, John Mountney are out injured, with new signing Darren Brownlie not yet ready to feature.