Stephen Dooley Arrives from Rochdale

Our third addition of the summer transfer window is Northern Irishman Stephen Dooley.

Dooley, who can play central or wide midfield, joins from League Two rivals Rochdale AFC on a two-year deal and will add EFL experience to the squad.

The 30-year-old’s career began in 2010 with Northern Irish side Coleraine before moving to America to play for Loyola Greyhounds. Dooley then returned to Coleraine in 2013 before signing for Derry (2014) and then Cork City in 2016.

A third spell with Coleraine came in 2017 and he then joined Rochdale in May 2018.

Dooley would go on to make over 100 appearances for the Dale, featuring as a versatile midfielder for the former League One outfit.

The Northern Irishman also represented his country at u17 and u19 level and was drawn to Harrogate by the vision for the club.

“Speaking with Simon Weaver I heard the vision for the club and it sounded like an exciting time, so I’m really looking forward to getting going.

“It was a tough decision to leave Rochdale, I loved my time there, everyone at the club was brilliant to me, but now I want to crack on at Harrogate.

“I played here on the opening day of the season and remember the atmosphere was good, even if it turned out to be a tough one for us.

“In both games against Harrogate there was plenty of action, plenty of goals, lots of free flowing football, they were really fun games to be a part of.”

Those two meetings caught the eye of Weaver, who was delighted to capture a third transfer target of the window.

“We’ve watched a lot of coverage of Stephen, we noticed him actually in the first game of last season when he played a part in both Rochdale’s goals against us, he’s extremely calm and composed on the ball.

“As well as wanting to add physicality this Summer we also wanted to add composure, last year we were up there with the best in terms of counter attacking goals, but wanting to be a possession based team we just weren’t calm enough at times and Stephen can show that class and ability to add that to the team.

Dooley will wear number 22 at Town.

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