Striker Gary Shaw departs Shamrock Rovers

Gary Shaw is the second Shamrock Rovers player to announce on Twitter his departure from the Hoops in the last 24 hours.

After Luke Byrne’s tweet on Saturday (see here), striker Shaw has signalled on Sunday his intent to depart the Tallaght based club.

“It was a privilege to play for @ShamrockRovers over the past 3 seasons,” said Shaw on Twitter. “Thank you to the fans and everyone at the club for what you have done for me. Best of luck to all next season.”

Shaw won the club’s player of the year award last season but struggled to claim a regular place in Stephen Bradley’s starting XI this year. He made 25 appearances in the league for the Hoops in 2018 but 14 of them came off the bench. 

He scored two goals for the Hoops in the league in 2018 – compared with the 11 last year when he was the top goalscorer in league action for the Hoops.

Shaw also scored the only goal of the game in Iceland in Rovers’ 1-0 Europa League qualifier first leg against Stjarnan. Shaw spent three seasons with the Hoops, making 80 league appearances and scoring 19 league goals. 

The striker picked up a nasty arm injury in Rovers penultimate league game of last season where he broke his humerus in the Carlisle Grounds against his former club.

Shaw debuted in the League of Ireland with Bray Wanderers. He subsequently joined Longford Town where he won the First Division title with De Town in 2014 in a season when he scored 13 times, before joining the Hoops in 2016.

The Hoops have been lacking a striker who can score them goals in sufficient quantities to put them in contention for the title and may look to the UK to bring in a goal scoring forward.

Recent comments from Stephen Bradley suggest that Dan Carr will be with the Hoops next season. 

“(Dan) has ten (goals) now,” said Bradley speaking about Carr. “He’s had really good opportunities to add to that. For Dan next year that’s what he needs to try and improve on.”

Dean Dillon will likely return to Rovers after his loan spell with Longford – the teenage striker completed his Leaving Cert in June within the education partnership programme Roves have with Ashfield College – while Sean Boyd has recently returned from injury scoring in Rovers’ 3-1 win over Waterford in the last home game of the season for the Hoops. 

It was a privilege to play for @ShamrockRovers over the past 3 seasons. Thank you to the fans and everyone at the club for what you have done for me. Best of luck to all next season.

— Gary Shaw (@gary_shaw10) October 28, 2018