O'Donnell's Dundalk ready to knock out Bruno's at home

Dundalk boss Stephen O'Donnell can’t wait to get his side back home to Oriel Park where he has every confidence they can finish the job against FC Bruno’s Magpies and step into the next stage of Europa Conference League qualification.

O’Donnell’s side played well for the most part but also rode their luck at times as they left Gibraltar with a 0-0 draw in testing heat at the Victoria Stadium early Thursday evening.

"Very tough, testing conditions," O’Donnell told RTÉ Sport reporter James Rogers after the game.

"There is obviously the element of the unknown for us with it being we’ve one game to go off – a lot of new signings, a new coach. We’ve a much better feel for them, we’re not worse off with the scoreline. We’ll take it back to Oriel but we have to prepare well now straight from the bat.

"Some good passages and then we need to tidy up what we’re like on the counter. They didn’t play up through us at all but went from back to front a couple of times and cost us too many issues, more than they should have.

"We went a little bit away from what we were working towards in the second half. As regards getting it wide, getting deliveries… but we look forward to the second leg next Thursday."

Magpies have had a recent manager change and, along with the general lack of opponent scouting available at this stage of the European season, O’Donnell was still happy enough that his side went into the game as prepared as they could possibly be.

"Nothing surprised us about them" the manager insisted. "They played the same way as the game we saw them last week. When they don’t have the ball they go into two banks, 4-4-2, but they do carry a threat. But when we dominate the game, we want the other team to be hanging on. Not us dominating then