Wexford pals likely to re-unite shortly
ORDINARILY, the English League One football meeting between Rochdale and Fleetwood Town, scheduled for the Crown Oil Arena on Saturday, February 10, wouldn’t be of the slightest interest to Wexford sports followers.
However, there will be a completely different hue to this particular clash as it’s quite likely to feature a reunion of two staunch Slaneysiders and former Cork City team-mates.
We reported recently in this column on the decision of Ryan Delaney from New Ross to drop down a division in the hope of securing regular first team football, leaving Championship side Burton Albion and signing a two-and-a-half year deal with Rochdale.
And he was joined in a move to League One last week by lotto millionaire Kevin O’Connor, albeit on a temporary basis.
After making nine first team appearances with Preston North End since his arrival from Cork City last July, the Screen lad has gone out on loan to Fleetwood Town until the end of the season.
And if everything goes according to plan, Ryan and Kevin - who both debuted with their news clubs on Saturday - will be sharing the same field on Sandy Lane in Rochdale early next month.
O’Connor has been on the receiving end of plenty of football banter since his recent lotto win.
On his return to Preston, his team-mates had super-imposed his head on an image of Conor McGregor driving a Ferrari, and during a pre-game warm-up he was serenaded by fans with chants of ‘Kevin, Kevin, buy us a pint’ and ‘Pay off my overdraft, pay off my overdraft’.
Fleetwood Town also entered into the spirit of things with the quirky manner in which they announced his signing, releasing a video of the left-back playing the lottery, and only revealing his identity at the finish. Check it out at https://twitter.com/ftfc