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  General

• Tuesday February 21st, 2017 @ 17:24

NEW SIGNING: Josh O'Hanlon Joins The Saints

St Patrick's Athletic are delighted to confirm the signing of striker Josh O'Hanlon.

The 21 year old comes to Inchicore having spent the majority of the last three years playing in the UK.

Josh signed for Bournemouth from Longford Town in 2014 but didn't make a senior appearance for the club.

Loan spells at Oxford City, Poole Town, York City and Chester followed along with a brief spell back with Longford Town last season.

He made seven appearances for English League Two team Newport County before moving back to Dublin in January.

Josh and first, Manager Liam Buckley spoke to StPatsFC.Com.

Liam began by telling us about his new striker.

"Josh is a particularly good signing. He's been in training with us for the last weeks few weeks and we've seen him in a couple of the friendly games too in which he's done really well. He's a strong boy, technically very good and will link the play well for us, I'm looking forward to working with him."

Options

"We felt we needed to add an extra striker to the group. We have Christy Fagan, Kurtis Byrne can play in that position and Aidan Keena from our U19 group has done well in pre season also. Josh gives us another very good option."

So what qualities does the gaffer feel Josh will bring to the team?

"He takes the ball in well which is an important part of our game, his work rate is very good, he's quick, good in the air from both an attacking and defensive point of view so I'm expecting quite a bit from him."

Having had that spell in the UK, Buckley is hoping O'Hanlon will make a good impact back in the League of Ireland.

"He wouldn't be the first guy to go to England and come back home. I was one of those myself. All I'm looking for him to do is to knuckle down, get his work done and perform to the best levels he can. We'll have a competitive group and a competitive team and Josh will add to that mix."

Liam also thinks the ex Bournemouth man adds something a little bit different to his attacking options.

"Josh adds a bit of pace for us in behind the opposition if we need it. Christy Fagan would be a little bit the opposite in terms of linking the play and looking to be in the box to finish chances. We have Kurtis too who can play on either wing or up front and has an eye for a goal as we know, and young Aidan as well as a couple of the other attacking players in our U19 group, hopefully they'll get us a few goals."

Full Time

Josh also caught up with our website after training on Tuesday.

"I wasn't really sure what I was going to do when I came home from England in January. I've done pre season with Pat's and am happy to finally get it done."

Staying in a full time football environment was an important part of his decision.

"I'm really enjoying it. The facilities we have here in ALSAA are top class in terms of the pitches, the gyms, swimming pool, meeting rooms etc. I wanted to come back into a full time club in Ireland. Playing part time is something I wasn't interested in. Having been in the UK, I needed to stay training every day and I'm happy Liam and St Pat's have given me the chance to do that."

Home

"I came home on loan to Longford last season and it didn't really work out for me. I wasn't really in a good place. I'm back now and I've been enjoying my football again. I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself and make any promises just yet, I need to work hard to get in the team and we'll see where we go from there."

Pace, power and goals are some of the things he's planning to add to the team.

"I'm obviously a big man who can play as a target man of sorts but I can also run in behind and threaten the opposition teams in the other half as well as linking up the play."

"When I was younger I would have really been known for wanting to use my pace and run in behind all the time but in the last couple of years I've become more of a central striker, I like doing both and it's good to have a mix. We can play with either one striker, two up or even three, I think the players we have in the squad give us good options to do that."

Josh will wear the number 26 jersey.