George Horan earns piece of Champions League history as Connah’s Quay Nomads draw with Armenian champions

WELSH ROUND-UP

By Rob Cole

GEORGE Horan put himself in line for a slice of Champions League history last week when he tapped home a 79th minute equaliser for Welsh Premier champions Connah’s Quay Nomads against the FC Alashkert.

Image: Alamy

The veteran skipper and centre back rocked the fully-pro Armenian champions with his first European goal to set-up a winner-takes-all return leg in Yerevan on Wednesday.

A look at the history books revealed that the former Chester captain, at 39 years, 137 days old was more than a year older than Italian star Francesco Totti when he became the oldest player to score in the tournament and if you’re thinking about a bet on this year’s tournament here are the latest football odds.

That Horan is still going in his 40th year is remarkable enough, but manager Andy Morrison was able to help even more praise onto his talisman given he had been unwell for the previous two weeks.

“George soldiered on all the way through the game even though he had been in bed for two weeks and only turned up for training the day before the game,” Morrison said. “He had been pretty poorly and I had to wait for clearance from the Welsh Health Authority before I could select him”.

With 540,000 Euros already in the bank, the Nomads will be chasing more cash as well as a ticket into the second qualifying round with a win in Armenia.

“I thought we were magnificent in the second half and just limited them to a couple of shots. They were running out of ideas by the end,” added Morrison. “We’ve got a seven-hour plane journey to get to Armenia this week and I told the players at half-time that I didn’t want them to be going there as tourists.

“But after George’s goal we are going to go out there with everything to play for. It is going to be challenging, but we asked question of them and now we have got to go and show them we can do that again.”

The New Saints will also be hoping to reach the next round after holding Glentoran to a 1-1 draw in Belfast in the Europa Conference League first qualifying round. A wonder goal from Leo Smith in the first half gave the Welsh side the lead before the home equalised eight minutes from time.

Bala Town went down 1-0 to their Irish rivals, Larne FC, after conceding a second-minute goal to David McDaid. He latched onto a defensive lapse by the Lakesiders before lobbing Alex Ramsey in the home goal.

The other Welsh side, Newtown, were beaten 4-0 at Dundalk and now face an uphill task in the home leg on Thursday.