Roddy delighted to land primary transfer target

ATHLONE Town manager Roddy Collins has expressed his delight at finally landing his main July transfer window target, Salthill Devon striker Enda Curran, ahead of Wednesday night’s deadline for new signings.

Collins has diligently pursued the signing of Curran for much of the month of July, after the centre-forward netted eight goals for bottom-placed Salthill this season - including a hat-trick against Athlone at Lissywollen early in the campaign.

Curran joins an Athlone team currently riding high in the Airtricity League First Division after they went to the top of the table (on goal difference from Longford Town) following last weekend’s draw against Waterford Utd.

At time of writing, Collins was “very hopeful” of completing a midfield signing by the close of transfer business at midnight tonight (Wednesday) and on Curran, he said: “I had been chasing Curran for a long time but he’s the one that I really wanted. I think he’ll bring something very different to the side. He’s an aggressive sort of player that produces unpredictable goals out of nothing. He’s hungry to do well and a confident lad.”

Curran, 21, is expected to go straight into the Athlone squad for Friday’s home league match against Finn Harps, who have already lost twice to Athlone this season.

Collins added: “It doesn’t matter that Harps have had a disappointing run. I know their manager (Peter Hutton) well and he’s a real fighter and his team will be charged-up on Friday. They won’t like the fact that we beat them twice this season and we need to be ready for the challenge - and we will be. No team of mine will ever be allowed to become complacent and going top of the table last weekend changes absolutely nothing. The players have done brilliant so far but we need to keep pushing on and working extremely hard for the remaining nine games.”

If Athlone are to gain promotion come the end of the season, they will end an 18-year hiatus from the Premier Division of Irish football.