Shamrock Rovers pounce to sign striker John McGovern
Shamrock Rovers' new signing John McGovern. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
League of Ireland leaders Shamrock Rovers have bolstered their strikeforce by recruiting striker, former Down GAA star John McGovern, from Dungannon Swifts.
Having just won the Irish Cup with his club, the Hoops have agreed a transfer fee to enable the 22-year-old to be available from July 1.
Rovers enjoy a six-point advantage at the midway point of the season and on June 13 will discover their opposition in the Uefa Conference League, a competition they reached the knockout stages of last season.
The riches in their squad was evident when they made a quadruple substitution of star quality in the recent 4-0 romp over St Patrick’s Athletic, the team many tipped to challenge them for the title.
Rovers were denied an unprecedented fifth successive title on the final day of last season when Shelbourne grabbed a late winner in Derry to claim the trophy.
“John will give us real depth in that forward area of the pitch and another dimension,” said Rovers boss Stephen Bradley, whose team host Galway United at Tallaght on Friday.
“His age profile means he’s one for now, but also the future.
“We tried quite a bit over the last year to sign John, but it wasn’t possible.
“He was at University and Dungannon weren’t ready to sell at that moment in time. So, it was a case of continuing to monitor John, and thankfully, we’ve got him in now.
“We could have moved in on other players in the previous window, but we wanted to wait on John as he was someone we’d monitored for quite some time.”
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