Former Portsmouth, Chesterfield and Swindon Town man 90 minutes away from Europa Conference League

Former Pompey defender Dion Donohue is one game away from playing in the Europa Conference League.

The 30-year-old these days is playing his club football for Caernarfon Town in the Cymru Premier, the top flight of Welsh football. His team are in the play-off final where they will host Penybont (Bridgend) at The Oval on Saturday, May 18 at 2.45 pm.

Caernarfon have never qualified for Europe, but Donohue has them on the verge of qualification. He has played 24 times in all competitions for the Canaries this season, and recently played at centre-back in their 2-0 win over Cardiff Met.

Should Caernarfon beat Penybont then they would enter the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa Conference League, which is Europe’s third tier club competition. He could be lining up against the likes of Linfield and Crusaders from Northern Ireland, as well as Derry City who play in the League of Ireland.

Donohue was part of a Pompey side which, in 2018-19, finished fourth in League One to reach the play-offs, where they lost to Sunderland. Kenny Jackett was keen to keep him at Fratton Park for a further 12 months, but he instead departed in search of regular game time and left having played 49 games over a two-year spell.

He joined Mansfield Town, but made just one senior appearance before moving on to Swindon Town. Donohue played for the Robins on a month-by-month basis and he opted to cancel his contract in December 2020. His last club in professional football ended up being Barrow, appearing four times for the Bluebirds, before leaving in the summer of 2021. Since then, he signed for part-time Caernarfon Town and works as a plasterer.

For fans interested in watching how one of their players gets on, the match will be broadcast on Welsh language TV channel S4C. Sgorio are also showing it on Facebook, YouTube, as well as BBC iPlayer.