Preston North End have confirmed the arrival of Daryl Horgan at Deepdale with the 24 year-old winger following his former Dundalk team mate Andy Boyle to the Championship club.

The pair had both attracted interest from a number of British clubs after their impressive form for Stephen Kenny’s side in the Europa League but both have settled on a club that, while still very much in contention for the promotion play-offs, appears to offer a very real prospect of first team action.

“I’m delighted to be here,” said Horgan whose signing was officially announced on Monday morning. “I’m absolutely thrilled to get the deal over the line so now I’m really looking forward to getting into training and hopefully into the team.

“It’s a massive club with a great history, it’s a good team who like to try and play football which was key for me. I met the manager and I was impressed by everything that he had to say so that all helped massively, it just all seemed to fit and hopefully I can fit in here. I work hard, I try my best; hopefully it will go well.”

Boyle, whose deal was finalised on Friday, said: “I can’t wait to get started. We have had a great run with Dundalk in Europe and won the league and then I got the international call up, so it has been a great year and this has capped it off.”

Preston boss Simon Grayson said that he was happy too after having beaten a string of other clubs to the pair. "We have had to work hard to get them," he said. "Both players have had great seasons in their league and in Europe, leading to their call ups for the Irish squad. They are young, hungry and looking to improve and will be excellent acquisitions for us.

“I spoke to Steve Guppy (a member of Martin O’Neill’s coaching staff) about both of them, who was very positive and we have watched them a number of times and they have been excellent at club level and handled the Europa League games very well.

“Daryl is a forward thinking players with a lot of goals. He makes things happen, has got a bit of pace about him, has a good delivery in him and he has scored a lot of goals this season.

“Andy is a good centre half, who can also handle the ball and both have shown their determination to join us by coming over a couple of times to meet us and got things done very quickly. They both have the desire to keep improving and joining a Championship club is the next progression for them – we have always tried to improve and we look forward to working with them.”

The pair have signed two and a half year deals which start when the transfer window opens on January 1st by which time their international clearance should be through. They join Greg Cunningham, Alan Browne, Eoin Doyle and Aiden McGeady (who is on loan from Everton) at the club who are 12th in the Championship table but only four points off sixth place.