By Albatross
February 2 2005

It sounds a bit unlikely on the face of it - but rumours have surfaced that Stockport County's Irish forward Jon Daly may be about to sign up a Victoria Park. Cooper seems to have wanted a big striker in the squad for a while - is Daly the answer? Rumours have emerged at both Hartlepool and Stockport of a move for Daly; the Stockport end seems to indicate that this would be a swap deal although who for is open to question - Darrell Clarke would seem to be the name that immediately suggests itself, but County would surely want to be confident of his fitness first and he's unlikely to be ready to play for another 2-3 weeks. There had been some talk of Daly making an appearance for the Reserves today - but he wasn't on the team sheet on the Official Site, and will apparently be turning out for Stockport's second string instead.

So what do we know about Jon Daly? Well for starters he scored against us for the Hatters in our 2-1 win at the Vic earlier this season; and he's had loan spells at Grimsby this season and Bury last year as well. In all he's scored 5 goals this season, but also got sent off while at Grimsby - the fourth dismissal of his career. Aberdeen had been rumoured to be interested in signing him not so long ago, but then manager Sammy McIlroy wanted to keep him at Edgely Park.

He's not exactly held in high regard by Hatters Fans at the moment - opinions on their main Message Board (www.marionsboard.com) when I asked tended to be along the lines that it would be good riddance! "Poncy hair, alice band, shiny boots... most goal shy attacker going" was one reaction, while "Can't finish, jumps like he's nailed to the ground, speed of a tortoise" was another. One or two though have some positive things to say - when motivated he can make a difference it seems, and he might be capable of doing a job as a target man if not as a goalscorer.

While the signs may not initially look promising, it may be that there's more to Daly than meets the eye of many. He's represented Eire at a variety of different youth levels up to and including u21, an SPL side has shown interest in him, and McIlroy certainly seems to have seen him as one for the future. At 22, he's got time to improve yet - and so far all of his club career has been spent in a struggling side. We'll have to wait a little while yet to find out if he'll be joining one at the right end of the table in Pools.