LOAN SIGNING: JOSH O’CONNOR

We are pleased to announce the signing of striker Josh O’Connor on a loan deal from Hibernian until the end of the season.

The 20-year-old Edinburgh native will wear the number 18 shirt and could feature in Friday night’s SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division clash with Bohemians at Dalymount Park.

“Everything happened quite quickly,” said O’Connor. “I got the call on Tuesday, flew over on Wednesday, signed on Thursday so it would be nice to play and score on Friday!

“There are 12 games left and I hope to make a big contribution here. We’ll take it one game at a time but I’ve already seen from training that we have enough quality to get out of danger.”

A graduate of the Hibs academy, where he played alongside Jamie Gullan, Josh made his first-team debut for the club when he came off the bench against Aberdeen in a Scottish Premiership game in March 2022.

A son of former Hibernian and Scottish international striker Garry O’Connor, Josh spent the 2023/2024 campaign on loan at Airdrie where he made 33 appearances in all competitions, scoring five times, as the North Lanarkshire outfit won the Scottish Challenge Cup and reached the Championship playoffs.

Josh O’Connor. Photos by Ciaran Culligan

“With Cameron Elliott going back to Scotland, I think it was important that we tried to add to our attacking threat,” said Dundalk FC manager Jon Daly.

“Josh is a little bit different from what we have. He has real pace up top and he likes to play on the shoulder so he’ll give us that threat in behind and he can also play anywhere across the front three as well, which is a real positive. 

“He spent a season on loan at Airdrie last year in the Scottish Championship, which is a tough level, so he’s come up against some good teams and tough defenders and hopefully he can build on that here.

“It is difficult trying to get a striker in at this stage of the season so we are delighted to have Josh. He was keen to come in and very enthusiastic about the move, which is important, and hopefully, he can hit the ground running for us as quickly as possible.

“The loan move gives us a good chance to look at him and if everything goes well, then potentially we could maybe do something in January.”

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