Chris Bennion moves to the Saints
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
Goalkeeper Chris Bennion has signed for St Patrick’s Athletic from First Division side Athlone Town. Before joining Athlone at the start of the season, the 29 year old Scottish footballer had previously spent six years with Dundalk FC where he played under Saints Assistant manager John Gill for three seasons.
“I enjoyed my time at Athlone”, said Bennion,” they’re a good club building a good base but I had said to the manager that if there was interest shown by a Premier league club then I would want to move back to the top division”.
“It’s a tough division and I had managed to keep quite a few clean sheets this season”, added Bennion, “there was interest from another Premier club but when I heard Pat’s were interested then that was it”.
While Chris is pleased to be joining the Premier Division challengers he knows he has a tough job competing for the number one jersey at the club, “I know Gary Rogers well as we were both young keepers at Shelbourne together, he’s a very good keeper and he’s having a great season so it will be hard to break into the team”.
“ Hopefully I will get my chance at some stage and having a bit of competition all over the field keeps everyone on their toes”, said the former Athlone net minder.
“That’s two solid professionals with a lot of experience that we’ve now brought into the club”, said Saints manager Pete Mahon, “we’ve always said that we would only bring players in who could improve the overall squad and that has not changed”. “We’re still looking at one or two other players but there are no definite plans”, he added.
St Patrick’s Athletic’s next home game is against Sporting Fingal on Sunday 25th July with a 3.00pm kick off.
“I enjoyed my time at Athlone”, said Bennion,” they’re a good club building a good base but I had said to the manager that if there was interest shown by a Premier league club then I would want to move back to the top division”.
“It’s a tough division and I had managed to keep quite a few clean sheets this season”, added Bennion, “there was interest from another Premier club but when I heard Pat’s were interested then that was it”.
While Chris is pleased to be joining the Premier Division challengers he knows he has a tough job competing for the number one jersey at the club, “I know Gary Rogers well as we were both young keepers at Shelbourne together, he’s a very good keeper and he’s having a great season so it will be hard to break into the team”.
“ Hopefully I will get my chance at some stage and having a bit of competition all over the field keeps everyone on their toes”, said the former Athlone net minder.
“That’s two solid professionals with a lot of experience that we’ve now brought into the club”, said Saints manager Pete Mahon, “we’ve always said that we would only bring players in who could improve the overall squad and that has not changed”. “We’re still looking at one or two other players but there are no definite plans”, he added.
St Patrick’s Athletic’s next home game is against Sporting Fingal on Sunday 25th July with a 3.00pm kick off.
