Eric Molloy has had a crazy lockdown experience leaving Polish team Stomil Olsztyn in 2020 to return to Ireland and play some ball.
He signed with Waterford before moving to Shelbourne and even added a Carlow Senior football championship to his name with Rathvilly in the process.
He has now moved on from Shelbourne and announced he has signed for Division One side Longford Town. Gary Cronin was recently announced as the manager for the upcoming season and Molloy told Scoreline that he was a big factor in him dedicating the next year to “De Town” ;
“I wanted to play more football on Irish soil, I probably didn’t get as much game-time as I like over the last year being home.”
“I signed with Longford, with the aim to be on the field more often than not. I want to be playing and contributing to the team and enjoying, that is the aim, play more regularly and push myself forward.”
“You want a manager to be interested in you, that is a huge part of it. I was talking to Gary (Cronin) and I heard good things about him, some of the lads I know have played under him before and liked his style. I trained pre-season with Shelbourne up until January and that was not to be. Gary was onto me and I said yeah I’ll come in.”
Signed with @LongfordTownFC ✍️ Delighted to be out on the pitch enjoying it with the lads💪 great shift from everyone, another preseason game done ✅ happy with my first goal last night for the town😁🚀 ⚽️#cmonthetown pic.twitter.com/ztMjpmGE56
— Eric Molloy (@ericmolloy8) February 2, 2022
Damien Duff is of course the manager for Shelbourne after being announced in November. With contracts in the League of Ireland being quite precarious, going year to year, it was wondered would Molloy play into the former Chelsea player’s thoughts, unfortunately, that was not to be.
“I was up there (Shelbourne), felt like I was doing well and I had a few conversations with Damian Duff and it just was not to be. the club was going in a different direction, it was not my job to argue with that. I left on good terms but I am delighted to get the opportunity, it is a bit disheartening but that is all part of it.”
Any side in the first division always has ambitions to gain promotion, a feat Shelbourne managed last year. Molloy hopes to recreate that moment with his new side.
“It is an unusual dynamic, it hits you fast and hard. I am one of the oldest players on the team. So you want to bring that experience and help as much as possible and give ourselves the best opportunity to get back into the Premier Division.”
Listen back to the full interview on Scoreline Extra below.