O’Connor makes the perfect start on his return to Waterford
KEVIN O’CONNOR made a dream return to a former club when he grabbed the only goal for Waterford in their 1-0 away win over St. Patrick’s Athletic in the Premier Division season-opener in Richmond Park on Friday night.
The Screen native made the most of an error from the home side in the 48th minute, with Robbie Benson’s poor pass only going as far as Waterford’s Matty Smith whose cross was turned into the net by the former Cork City and Preston North End performer.
The 24-year-old O’Connor is on loan to Waterford from the English Championship side, and it’s his second stint with our south-east neighbours as he first came to prominence with the Blues when he made 43 appearances and scored three goals in the 2013-’14 season.
From there, he moved to bigger and brighter things with Cork City, adding another three goals in 69 matches between 2015 and 2017 before attracting the attention of Preston.
However, he was restricted to eight first team games, plus another four and six respectively while on loan to Fleetwood Town and then
Crewe Alexandra in 2018.
A return to Turner’s Cross on loan last term yielded one goal in 18 games, and Friday couldn’t have gone any better for the former Gaelic footballer with Shelmaliers who has been capped by the Republic of Ireland at Under-17 and Under-21 levels.
As well as making three appearances for the Wexford Senior footballers in early 2015 in between his soccer commitments, O’Connor famously won €1,000,000 in the National Lottery’s Christmas millionaire raffle in 2017.
Meanwhile, Enniscorthy’s Aaron Dobbs was an unused substitute for Shelbourne who marked their return to the top flight after a long absence with an excellent 1-0 win away to Cork City on Friday.
Dobbs, who is also studying civil engineering in the Technological University Dublin, joined the Tolka Park crew from Longford Town after scoring five times for the midlanders in last year’s campaign.
Recently turned 21, he made his Premier Division debut for Shamrock Rovers at the age of 16 before having an extended loan spell with Wexford F.C., scoring seven goals in 15 games in 2018 after making nine appearances without netting in the previous campaign.
The much-travelled Rossonian Greg Bolger is still with Shamrock Rovers, some 14 years into a fruitful League of Ireland career that has seen him also assist U.C.D., Sporting Fingal, Dundalk, St. Patrick’s Athletic and Cork City.
The 31-year-old didn’t feature in Saturday’s Dublin derby, while Gorey’s Conor Levingstone was absent from the Bohs squad too, but the unused substitute no doubt enjoyed Aaron Greene’s late winner against Bohemians in Dalymount Park.
One of Bolger’s colleagues at Tallaght last season, Ethan Boyle from Wexford town, has moved north to Irish Premiership holders Linfield on an 18-month deal.
The 23-year-old defender has made four appearances to date, having played with Waterford and Finn Harps before his move to Shamrock Rovers where he featured in 48 league games and scored twice in 2018 and 2019.