Hyland boost for Drogheda
DROGHEDA United boss Tim Clancy has made his first new signings for the 2019 season after James Brown and Cian Kavanagh moved to the Boyneside from First Division rivals Shelbourne.
Their addition brings the size of the squad to 10 after news earlier in the week that last season’s captain Jake Hyland has resigned for the club for a fourth season.
The captures of 20-year-old centre-back Brown and Kavanagh, a 22-year-old midfielder, have been welcomed by assistant manager Kevin Doherty who is familiar with both players following his own spell as Shelbourne boss.
Brown was called into the Shels senior side by Doherty in April 2016 and made 19 appearances last season, while Kavanagh’s two goals included one against the Drogs in the Leinster Senior Cup.
Speaking yesterday, Doherty recalled: ‘I had the two of them at Shels. Cian was actually on loan from Shamrock Rovers with me and he had a good season.
‘He missed the last couple of games of last season, but he’s very good on the ball and has a good passing game as well.
‘Jimmy is a really good young lad who played a lot of games in the first half of the season but didn’t feature in the last couple of games - I think there were issues there - and he was due to sign for Dundee [in the Scottish Premier League] last year but came back to play for Shels and I thought he was their best player in the Leinster Senior Cup Final.’
Doherty was also relieved to secure the services of skipper Hyland for another season as other options were available to the attacking midfielder, who is currently sidelined with a broken leg.
‘He is a really good player and had a good season and he was being chased by a couple of other clubs, so he had the option of going,’ Doherty revealed.
‘But I think the fact he knows Drogheda and we know him was a big factor, he was our captain last year and we’re delighted to keep him. He will be back [fit] for the start of the season hopefully.
‘There’s never a good time to break your leg, but if it had happened in April or May it would have been a lot worse.’
Doherty said he and Clancy were still undecided about whether to offer new deals to a couple of members of last year’s squad, but he acknowledged that Drogheda face a real battle to retain the services of Ciaran Kelly and William Hondermarck, two of their most promising young players from 2018.
‘There’s a couple of Premier clubs talking to Ciaran,’ said Doherty, ‘and he has to decide what he is going to do, but it’s going to be difficult to keep hold of him.
‘William would be very much part of our plans, but there’s a lot of interest in him as well, from home and abroad, so we’ll have to see what happens there.
‘We can’t offer the money that some other clubs can and we can’t offer Premier Division football, but there’s lads who stayed who were offered much better deals elsewhere, so there’s a good feeling around the place.
‘And we do feel we can offer them Premier Division football in the future.
‘This time last year Tim was not even in the job, so we’re very pleased at the progress we’ve made so far.’
Doherty also expressed the hope that the likes of Jordan Adeyemo, Eoin McPhillips and Sean Trimble - Under-19s players who made fleeting appearances for the first team this year - would make more of an impact in 2019.