| view O'Brien's match-by-match record |
| Alan O'BRIEN | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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An Irish international winger, O'Brien was signed on a two year deal in July 2009, after the Town negotiated his release from his contract at Scottish Premier side Hibernian. O達rien痴 first season at the County Ground proved to be a frustrating one - after his debut at Gillingham on the opening day of the season was brought to a premature end when he collided with the advertising hoardings behind the goal, O達rien missed a midweek Carling Cup win at MK Dons, and returned to the bench the following weekend. O達rien made four substitute appearances throughout August, but suffered a hamstring injury in the last of these just minutes after taking to the field against Southend - and with manager Danny Wilson having made all three substitutions, he was forced to hobble through the last twenty minutes of the game. It was the end of November before O達rien returned to the bench again, and he made his second start of the season in mid-December, in a 2-1 win over Brighton. His third start came over the Christmas period against Yeovil - but he succumbed to a hamstring injury on his other leg after just half-an-hour - and though he returned to the bench in February, it was a shortlived comeback - a recurrence of his original injury sustained in a reserve game saw him send to a specialist to resolve the problem for good. Finally, O達rien returned to action in May, making a brief appearance on the final day of the regular season at Millwall, then surprisingly starting the first leg of the play-off semi-final against Charlton - replacing Danny Ward on the left flank after Ward was moved up front in place of injured top scorer Billy Paynter. When Paynter recovered for the second leg, O達rien dropped to the bench again, but made substitute appearances in both the second leg and the final at Wembley. At the start of the 2010/11 season, manager Wilson declared that O'Brien's injury nightmare was behind him - and after starting the season on the bench, he gave a promising performance in a Carling Cup tie against Leyton Orient, before being named as the Town's stand-out performer in a 2-2 draw at Hartlepool that weekend. Soon though, O'Brien found himself again used only as an impact substitute - though his electric pace often put opposition defences on the back foot, too often the final delivery was missing. He didn't start a match again until the New Year, in a 4-2 win over Charlton that prompted Wilson to keep the same side for the following weekend, but when that game ended in defeat at Oldham, O'Brien was again benched. O'Brien remained on the fringes of the first team into February - and a good performance against Exeter handing him further starts against Bournemouth and Rochdale - but another hamstring injury forced him off of the latter game in the first half, keeping him out for three weeks. He returned to the bench for a 4-1 defeat at Southampton that proved to be Danny Wilson's last match in charge before his resignation - new boss Paul Hart gave O'Brien just fourteen minutes of an away match against Plymouth before deciding he was surplus to requirements, releasing the Irishman by mutual consent before the season was out. PLAYING RECORD:
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date of birth
usual positions left-sided attacking midfield other positions right-sided attacking midfield youth career senior career website links |
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REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
