Staunton Signs Left Back

by Scott Thornberry - 1st February 2010

staunton signs left back

Steve Staunton made a beat-the-deadline signing today by snapping up Irish defender Richie Byrne.

 The 28-year-old left-back, who spent three seasons playing for Aberdeen in the SPL, has joined the Quakers until the end of the season. 

Byrne, who has been given squad number 33 at Darlo, spent the second half of last season with Inverness Caledonian Thistle after joining them from Oldham Athletic last January, and also had a loan spell with St Johnston earlier this season.

 

 

The Dubliner played 59 games for Aberdeen from 2005-08 after two seasons with Dunfermline, who’d signed him from Shamrock Rovers in 2003. He helped Dunfermline reach the 2004 Scottish Cup Final.

 

Byrne joined Shamrock in 2000 and was their Young Player of the Year in his first season, and went on to make six appearances in European competition for the Hoops, two in the UEFA Cup and four in the Intertoto Cup.

 

Meanwhile, young midfielder Dan Riley has joined Northern League first division side Billingham Town on loan for a month.

 

RICHIE BYRNE FACTFILE

Born: Dublin, 25.9.81 (28)

Position: Left-back

Height: 6ft 1ins

PLAYING CAREER                   APPS   GOALS

Shamrock Rovers (2000-03)       56         0

Dunfermline (2003-05)                27         1

Aberdeen (2005-08)                   59         2

Oldham (2008-09)                      4          0

Inverness CT (2009)                   0          0

St Johnstone, loan (2009)          5          0

TOTAL                                     151       3

Comments

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DFCAnth - 1st February 2010 16:16:06

Signs.
http://www.darlington-fc.net/page/NewsD ... 57,00.html

Darlo_H - 1st February 2010 16:29:02

Surprise, surprise, another Irish lad! Played a good amount of games for Aberdeen so seems to come from a half decent pedigree for this level at least.

Back up for Giddings I presume?

Norm_D_Ploom - 1st February 2010 16:30:10

9 games in the last 2 seasons according to that, strange one if you ask me

divas - 1st February 2010 16:39:40

Looks solid enough on paper and is a big lad at 6 foot 1, will be useful cover for the centre of defence considering we're down to Dan Burn if either White or Miller get injured and cant start as well as left back. Also probably shows the Foster situ is no closer to being concluded.

AndyPark - 1st February 2010 16:40:26

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richie_Byrne

Norm_D_Ploom - 1st February 2010 16:41:10

Didn't we say these things about Fortune last pre season :lol:

AndyPark - 1st February 2010 16:43:26

divas wrote:Also probably shows the Foster situ is no closer to being concluded.
I've been told he has being released :wtf: Not confirmation though.

divas - 1st February 2010 16:45:43

AndyPark wrote:
divas wrote:Also probably shows the Foster situ is no closer to being concluded.
I've been told he has being released :wtf: Not confirmation though.
Well it makes no sense to keep him here and pay his wages for the remainder of the season and then release him when we can get shot now and save a few bob from tax & NI

Plus it gives him the option of signing up to another club before the end of the season if the release papers are signed before the window closes.

I expect the club will have been trying to get him a loan move and if nothing has materialised then a release could well be the next best thing for both the club & foster.

Darlo_H - 1st February 2010 16:53:31

Also good to see one of the youngsters head out for some experience.

I've only seen Dan Riley play at the Gateshead friendly a while back but he looked like a player with a decent amount of potential.

Jazz Maverick - 1st February 2010 16:56:01

At least he has some kind of pedigree coming from Aberdeen, although he hasnt played much recently. Got to be a better bet than dragging lads up from non league level.

Darlo_H - 1st February 2010 17:03:03

Jazz Maverick wrote:At least he has some kind of pedigree coming from Aberdeen, although he hasnt played much recently. Got to be a better bet than dragging lads up from non league level.
Considering he's probably being signed as back-up to a lad who we got from non-league?

Jazz Maverick - 1st February 2010 17:07:13

Darlo_H wrote:
Jazz Maverick wrote:At least he has some kind of pedigree coming from Aberdeen, although he hasnt played much recently. Got to be a better bet than dragging lads up from non league level.
Considering he's probably being signed as back-up to a lad who we got from non-league?
Ha! Fair point. What I meant to say was I see signings like this as usually being a safer bet than unknown quantities from non-league.

tdk1 - 1st February 2010 17:08:29

Do L2 clubs sign 28-year-old fullbacks as back-up though? I wonder whether Giddings isn't being moved into the 'one for the future' category, out of which we can pretty well make an entire starting XI now. It is an odd signing, although that doesn't necessarily mean he's not a good one.

Darlo_H - 1st February 2010 17:30:04

Jazz Maverick wrote:
Darlo_H wrote:
Jazz Maverick wrote:At least he has some kind of pedigree coming from Aberdeen, although he hasnt played much recently. Got to be a better bet than dragging lads up from non league level.
Considering he's probably being signed as back-up to a lad who we got from non-league?
Ha! Fair point. What I meant to say was I see signings like this as usually being a safer bet than unknown quantities from non-league.
Agreed! Wonder how his fitness is with him not playing much...the last thing we need is another for the 'long-term injury and ultimately forgotten' list!

divas - 2nd February 2010 15:04:12

having done some reading up on the lad it seems injuries have dogged his career, altho when fit he seems to be a quality player, he's played at a higher level than ours for the most part of his career, so if we can keep him fit he'll be an asset.

he can operate at LB, CB and in midfield, a big strong aggresive lad, sounds good, lets see.....

oh and the aberdeen fans reckon he looked terrible at LB but was much better at CB