Portadown Football Club is delighted to announce the signing of 28 year old Paul McElroy from Ballymena United.
The former Northern Ireland U21 international forward began his career at Dungannon Swifts before making the move to Hull City in 2010 followed by a move to Sheffield Wednesday in 2014.
The Dungannon native would return home to Northern Ireland in the summer of 2014 to join Linfield before Ronnie McFall swooped on Christmas Eve 2014 to bring the talented forward to Shamrock Park. It would prove to be a short stay at Portadown for Paul as he would depart in the summer of 2015 to return to Dungannon Swifts before moving on to Crusaders and then Ballymena United.
McElroy found the net 15 times for Ballymena United last season and so far this season has 1 goal in 13 games.
Ports manager Niall Currie had the following to say
Firstly I’d like to thank the board, we’re in a very difficult situation with still having a lot of players at the club who’ve been told they won’t be playing much football and have been transfer listed and while the club are still paying those wages they’ve allowed me and my staff to go and pursue what we think is a top top striker in Paul McElroy.
We’ve been chasing Paul now for quite a few weeks and again a massive thank you to the board who’ve came to an agreement with Ballymena Utd and have got everything over the line this morning and I’m over the moon to have him available for tomorrows game against Coleraine.
This isn’t the silver bullet but it’s certainly a signing of huge proportions for us in regards to his quality, he’s been Ballymena’s top scorer the past two seasons, has pedigree and is at a great age now where he’s coming into his prime.
Again a massive massive thank you to the board and everyone involved for allowing us to pursue this, it was a big one for the club and we have him over the line now and we can’t thank them enough.
Hopefully our supporters can see what we’re trying to do and we genuinely think Paul will give us this added extra dimension – he’s got pace, he’s got strength and he can finish. Fingers crossed he can hit the ground running and will be involved tomorrow, as I say he’s not the silver bullet but we’re working hard in the background to get more things done.
A huge thank you again to the board from me personally and thank you to Paul for taking this leap of faith with us in the situation we’re in but it shows me how big this club still is and how highly regarded it is around Northern Ireland that we can still attract this calibre of player.