Derry City sign Greacen

Stephen Kenny’s search for a centre half concluded yesterday, as 28 year old Scottish defender Stewart Greacen, put pen to paper on a one year deal.

Greacen, a native of Lanark, had been released just before Christmas by Greenock Morton, and had been on trial at Dundee. While at Dundee, he played one competitive game, in a 2-1 win against Queen of the South recently.

Having signed yesterday, he took part in his first training session with his new club, and was due to make his debut tonight, in a friendly against Irish Championship side, Loughgall. He becomes Kenny’s fifth signing, following Stephen McLaughlin, Eamon Zayed, Ruaidhri Higgins and Gareth McGlynn to the Brandywell.

Having been contacted by Stephen Kenny, Greacen admitted to looking for advice from a number of people before signing.

He said at yesterday’s press conference “I watched Derry play on Setanta television a few seasons ago and the standard appeared to be quite good. I knew of Stephen Kenny from when he managed Dunfermline. I played against them with Morton and was very interested in talking to him when he made contact with me.

“I had a chat with John Robertson, who managed Derry for a short spell, and I also made contact with Tam McManus through a friend of mine, before agreeing to come here.

“Both individuals were very positive about me moving to Ireland for a season, suggesting that Derry City would be a top club and it would prove a good experience for me.”

Standing a 6’2”, Greacen adds a physical presence to the Derry defence. With Eddie McCallion being the only defender at the club with Premier Division experience, Stephen Kenny believes that Greacen will prove a great asset to the side this season.

Kenny told the Derry Journal “He is what he is, an out-an-out central defender and given that we have Danny Lafferty and Eddie McCallion who are considered two small full-backs while Shane McEleney is new to this level, we needed both a physical presence and a leader and in Stewart I believe we have achieved that.

“It was vitally important that we brought in a player with good leadership qualities and given that Stewart has captained Morton since he was 22 or 23, says quite a lot about his leadership qualities.

“We’re considered a small team and we needed to have a bit of balance in central defence. We need to defend our box when we need to and, of course, defend set-piece situations. Stewart is a good communicator and a good professional. He gives us a bit of height and he’s good when attacking the ball. I believe he will have a good influence on our young team and I’m confident he will fit into our set up with ease.”

Greacen himself admits to looking forward to the challenge, and believes that the best is still to come from him.

“I feel I’m in my prime and believe I have a few years ahead of me and given what the manager and I talked about, he’s certainly very excited about the new season.

“He [Kenny] appears to be anxious to re-establish Derry’s prominence in the top league and hopefully we will enjoy a successful season.

“Experience is very important to young players and while I may be 28, hopefully my best years are still ahead of me as I feel I can get better. I’d be delighted to assist young lads playing around me and having been captain at Morton for six years, I think I’m well equipped in relation to experience. I’m really looking forward to it.”