Defender Jason Caffrey has agreed to join Shelbourne, having been with Bohemians last season.

20 year old Jay, played for Bohs U19s during the 2014/15 season and, following the end of their season, went on to play on four occasions in the league with the First Team, under Keith Long, before the end of the season.

Jay made five appearances for the U19s in their short interim season at the end of 2015.

2016 saw him join the Senior Squad, but failed to make any appearances in league games, though named as a substitute on six occasions. He did however feature in their 3-1 defeat of Longford Town in the EA Sports Cup.

This brings Owen Heary’s squad for the coming season to 13 players. joining Reece McEnteer, Lorcan Shannon, Dylan Kavanagh, Dylan Grimes, Adam Evans, James Brown, Dayle Rooney, Jack Tuite, Mikey Murphy, Chris Lyons, Adam O’Connor and James English.

James English, Shelbourne’s top scorer for last season, with 11 league goals in 25 league games, has agreed to sign up with the Reds for another season. English is the first of two signings expected for today.

All additions to the squad will be posted here as they are confirmed.

Owen Heary has tonight secured Adam O’Connor for Shelbourne for the coming season.

Adam was one of the successes for last season, playing in 22 league games, together with one appearance in each of the FAI, EA Sports and Leinster Senior Cups.

Though Adam is just 22, this will be his sixth season at Shelbourne

Chris Lyons is Owen Heary’s latest signing, having spent five of the last six seasons playing in the Premier Division, with UCD, Bohemians, Bray Wanderers and Sligo Rovers.

Chris played his underage football with Belvedere before signing for UCD, then managed by Martin Russell, in 2011. He made five league appearances that season – scoring twice. At the end of the following season, in which he had 23 league appearances for the Students, he departed Belfield for Dalymount, where he teamed up with Owen Heary.

2013 saw him make 20 league appearances for the Gypsies, scoring on three occasions.

He joined Shamrock Rovers ahead of their inaugural season in the First Division with their ‘B’ team in 2014. Out of their 28 league games, Chris played in 20, scoring six goals. When Rovers decided to ditch the ‘B’ team experiment, Chris moved to Bray Wanderers under Alan Mathews.

He played in 30 league games with the ‘Seagulls’ in 2015, scoring twice, before heading west and joining Dave Robertson’s Sligo Rovers at the start of the 2016 season. Six appearances later, with one goal (against Finn Harps), he left in July to re-join Bray Wanderers. He made seven appearances for Wanderers, scoring once.

Two further members of last years First Team squad have been added to those who had already committed to Shelbourne for the coming season.

They are

Jack Tuite, ex Derby County and Athlone, who was signed by Owen Heary shortly after he was appointed manager in July last year and

Mikey Murphy, who was promoted from the Under 19s in July and who played in Tom Mohan’s U17 International team in the Elite Qualifiers earlier that season.

The following players from last season’s team have committed to Shelbourne FC for the coming 2017 season:-

Reece McEnteer

Lorcan Shannon

Dylan Kavanagh

Dylan Grimes

Adam Evans

James Brown

and being promoted from the Under 19s is their captain and ‘Players’ Player of the Year’

Dayle Rooney

We will bring you news of further signings over the next few days/weeks as they happen.

I had the great pleasure of welcoming former Shels player, Hugh Brien, to Tolka Park yesterday afternoon.

Hugh, a goalkeeper, had been a senior GAA player with St. Vincents but fell foul of ‘the Ban’ and so continued to play with the Reds from 1949 to 1952 playing in 41 League of Ireland and 8 FAI Cup games.

The most important of the FAI Cup games were the drawn game and replay of the 1951 final against Cork Athletic. Chris Sands in his book ‘SHELS – a grand old team to know’ describes the first game (played in Dalymount in front of 38,192 spectators), which he watched from in front of the main stand ” It was a good position, good enough to see Paddy O’Leary score for Cork just past mid-way through the first half, so Cork led by 1-0 at half time. Than in the second half, try as they might, it seemed that Shels were heading for another FAI Cup Final defeat, until about ten minutes to go, Tommy Carberry scored to complete his record of scoring in every round, and to save our team from defeat as the game ended in a 1-1 draw.”

In the replay (in front of 22,010 spectators), Cork’s Johnny Vaughan scored just on half-time and “try as they did, Shels did not manage a reply, so the FAI Cup went to Cork Athletic, and Shels had lost again in an FAI Cup Final.”

Hugh Brien emigrated to the USA shortly after and following a very successful career as a senior officer in the US emigration service, reached second-in-command in an organisation of over fifty thousand officers, is now retired and living in Virginia, USA.

He is in Ireland to attend the Annual Dinner of the O’Connell Schools’ Past Pupils Union – he did his Leaving Cert there in 1949 – and will be presented with their ‘Past Pupil of the Year Award’.

FY

New Opening Hours for Tolka Park shop this Saturday.

The Club Shop at Tolka Park will be open from 11am to 1pm on the next two Saturdays – Nov 12th and 19th

Reminder: If these tiimes don't suit, our online shop is available at shop.shelbournefc.ie

While the shop is not usually open during the week, we can often arrange to have it opened for you if you contact us in advance at shop@shelbournefc.ie

Shelbourne Ladies 5-0 Wexford Youths WFC

An impressive display of attacking football saw Shelbourne Ladies claim the Continental Tyres FAI Women’s National Cup on Sunday afternoon after a 5-0 victory over Wexford Youths WFC at the Aviva Stadium.

Read the full report, courtesy of John O’Shea and extratime.ie by clicking HERE.