Sean was a player we originally acquired as a scholar when he was just 15 years of age after being spotted and impressing Jez George whilst playing for Pheonix FC in his hometown of Dublin. Some interesting insight on what went into that transfer was brought to light by Jez George in the transfer deadline day special. This included the fact that the club organized his Irish leaving certificate at Lincoln Minster School which is also where the headmaster of the same school taught Sean mathematics one to one. The club also arranged for an Irish tutor from Nottingham to help Sean with his education. These examples emphasise what the club saw in Sean and the talent he possessed even at such a young age.
Sean completed the 2019–20 season by working his way through the club’s scholarship program during his first year of membership. Naturally, this was the season that was cut short when the pandemic broke out in March 2020, ending all football in the 19/20 season shortly after. It was determined later in the year that all English football would return, albeit behind closed doors. Sean signed his first professional contract with the team in July 2020 at the same time. Many Imps supporters were shocked to learn that, in the first three months of the 20/21 season, Sean started six games as a left back and didn’t look out of place. He got an early advantage in these games.
Even worse, during the latter part of that season, Sean was completely cut from the squad and was not allowed to play for the first team again. Sean must have felt badly about this and lost confidence as a result. particularly in light of the fact that it meant he returned to the young team after playing a few months as a starter for the first squad. Even though the season was successful, I never understood why the head coach treated Sean the way he did and thought it was inappropriate. He ultimately pulled one up on Appleton, as we all know, but I’ll get to that later.
A few weeks after this game came Charlton at home, where Roughan was able to enact some revenge on Michael Appleton (head coach of Charlton at the time). This was a game where he and the whole City side were
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