Transfer: Liam O’Neill bolsters attacking options

Atherton Collieries are delighted to announce the signing of attacking midfielder Liam O'Neill. The former Crewe academy player spent last season in Wales playing for Airbus UK Broughton, scoring against the likes of Bangor City. O'Neill was at Gresty Road from the age of 8 and went up through the ranks at Crewe, being awarded a professional contract in 2015 after helping his side reach the quarter finals of the FA Youth Cup. He was released by the Alex in the summer of 2016 and moved over to Airbus. Since leaving the Wingmakers in the summer he has worked with a couple of teams to keep up his fitness. For the last couple of months he has been training at Southport but first team opportunities have been hard to come by due to the form that the Sandgrounders are currently in. Southport manager Kevin Davies alerted Colls to the promising midfielder and he has been training with under Michael Clegg for the last couple of weeks while the paperwork has been sorted. "This signing has come at exactly the right time for us. Gaz Peet is a long term absentee and James Sigsworth has gone training over in America for a few weeks, so we have been left with just two wingers. Liam has shown in training he has lots of ability and living locally I think he is going to fit in straight away," explained Clegg. Speaking on joining the club, O'Neill said, "I am really happy to be signing for Atherton Collieries." "It feels like it has been a long wait but I can't wait to finally get back to playing. I've trained with the first team a few times now while waiting to sign and I feel very comfortable here." "The lads and management are a top group and I can't wait to be involved on Saturday," continued O'Neill.