Liam Scales

UCD manager Collie O’Neill hopes to have Liam Scales available to him for Friday’s Airtricity League game in Derry despite the 20 year-old defender having been on the verge of a move to Bristol Rovers for the past week or so.
O’Neill says that that the player said his goodbyes to the rest of the squad last weekend but that the transfer has not actually been completed yet and that if it is not imminent by Friday then he will look to use him at the Brandywell.
“If it’s going to happen in the following 24 hours or anything then I certainly wouldn’t do anything to jeopardise it,” he says, “but it would be great to have him available if things have got done by then. We’ll talk about it between now and then”
The Dubliners have been so short of bodies of late that they have not been able to fill all the available places on their bench with Niall Farrugia and Gary O’Neill having departed to Shamrock Rovers and Conor Davis, who may well feature in this game, joining Derry City.
Evan Osam and Josh Collins are still out injured but midfielders Jack Ryan and Dara Keane are fit again after lay-offs and Richie O’Farrell is available after having been put on standby for the Irish Under-19 squad which has travelled to Armenia for the European Championships.
A makeshift side lost a friendly O’Neill says was of little or no consequence to him 11-0 against Portsmouth on Wednesday evening. The manager says he is more concerned with picking up the points require to avoid relegation with the team having given themselves a boost last weekend by beating Finn Harps 1-0.
“It keeps us in it,” he says. “It gives us hope but it is going to be tough.” He is boosted, however, by the signing of Jack Kearney from Sligo Rovers with the highly rated 20 year-old moving so as to start a degree course at Belfield and O’Neil remains hopeful that Liam Kerrigan will complete a similar switch.

This is all a bit odd.

The UCD manager seems as bemused as all of us as to why this deal isn’t officially done yet!

Surely he would rather come to us and be developed under GC and not Joey Barton who is up and down like a judges hammer.

The trouble with that is, he might also think he could learn a thing or two from the Fleetwood assistant manager Clint Hill, who played 260 times more than Cogs at Championship level or above, including 72 times in the Premier League.

Ah, but how Irish is Clint Hill......or Barton?

Barton's grandmother is Irish apparently.

I wonder if its about starting matches?
I mean if he is going to be in our under-23 squad he may as well go to man city.
I think posters on here are underestimating joey barton as a manager.
He is intelligent and knows his football its just a shame he is a sociopath.

I think most Scouser have Irish ancestry. The place is practically the capital of Ireland.

My understanding is that this will sort itself out over the next week .... While their manager has made himself look a bit daft talking about things too early, we do seem to be dragging our heels for some reason and would be a shame if we end up losing out especially to Fleetwood.

Personal terms aren’t an issue apparently .... I’m sensing that if Liam comes in then Rollin could be on his way certainly on loan but even possibly out full time. I wonder if we are trying to broker a deal with one of the local L2 clubs or even Yeovil to see if Rollin might be a fit for next season.