Shane McFaul

Shane Charles Alan McFaul (born 23 May 1986 in Dublin) is an Irish footballer. He currently plays for DSK Shivajians.

During his career, he has played for St Patrick's Athletic (two spells), FC Haka, Sporting Fingal, Virginia Beach Mariners, UCD (two spells), Notts County and Brighton & Hove Albion.

Career

Shane started out his career with local side C.A.R.C FC before moving on to the notorious schoolboy club Cherry Orchard. He played there in a successful team with the likes of Stephen Quinn, Gary Dicker, Paul Byrne and Derek Doyle.

In 2002 Shane signed a 4-year professional contract with League One side Notts County. After only a short few months at Meadow Lane Shane was given the number 16 squad number as a then 16-year-old. He made numerous appearances as an unused substitute during that season. It was the 2003/2004 season where he really came to prominence. Making his debut at 17 as a second-half replacement against Swindon Town, filling in at right back. Although losing 4–1 McFaul made a huge impression with his passing ability, energy and drive. More so in fact that he earned a starting spot 2 days later against Peterborough United.

McFaul earned rave reviews after his performance and left the field to a standing ovation. His creativity on the ball and work rate caught the eye and he went on to make 8 more appearances that season. 2004/2005 saw McFaul make 37 first team appearances, filling in for 20 games at right back although performing well it was at his preferred central midfield role where he excelled. 2005/2006 saw McFaul on the way out of Meadow Lane as new manager Guðjón Þórðarson restricted his chances in the first team.

A brief stint at Virginia Beach Mariners in 2006 followed, where he was recommended by former Tottenham Hotspur star Darren Caskey. Unfortunately, the Virginia Beach Mariners went defunct so McFauls 2-year deal was retracted.

The 2007 season saw McFaul linking up with former Cherry Orchard team mates at UCD in the Eircom Premier League. It was here he shone with fellow under 21 international Ronan Finn in the centre of the park. The highlights of the season was an outstanding performance live on television against Shamrock Rovers, earning not only the Man of the Match award but a call up to the Irish Under 21s squad. A low was missing out on a FAI Cup Semi-final against Longford Town due to ankle ligament damage.

In the close season McFaul had successful trials at Championship side Scunthorpe United and League One side Brighton.

Shane agreed to join Brighton on a free transfer until the end of the 2007/08 season on 11 January 2008.^[1]

Shane made his Brighton debut coming on as a late substitute during the 3–0 home victory over Crewe.

After 6 months of a lack of opportunities and 1 first team appearance and 6 unused substitute appearances McFaul was released on 6 May 2008^[2]

Shane returned to Ireland and re-signed for UCD on 15 May 2008.^[3]

For the 2009 season McFaul signed with the newly founded but exciting project Sporting Fingal under the stewardship of former Irish International Liam Buckley.

Fingal achieved promotion to the Premier Division at the end of 2009 and better was to come as Fingal and McFaul won the FAI Cup when beating Sligo Rovers 2–1 at Tallaght Stadium.^[4] McFaul was later named Man of the Match in the F.A.I Cup Final Vs Sligo Rovers and also the honour of being named Sporting Fingal Player of the Year 2009.

In the 2010 season his performances for Fingal attracted the interest of Scottish giants Celtic FC. http://www.herald.ie/sport/soccer/celtic-track-sporting-fingal-pair-27948702.html

Shane made his Republic of Ireland U21 debut in a friendly game against Germany on 21 August 2007. He was also an unused sub in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship Qualifying games against Portugal and England.

McFaul signed for the club he supported as a boy, St.Patrick's Athletic in February 2011 after Sporting Fingal went out of business. McFaul won the St.Patrick's Athletic Supporters Club Player of the Month for July 2011 after his brilliant performances.

In December 2011, McFaul signed for Finnish club FC Haka^[5] McFaul had a good season personally, but unfortunately this was not the case for Haka as they were relegated.

McFaul returned to St Patrick's Athletic on 20 November 2012, linking up with his former Sporting Fingal manager Liam Buckley. He made his comeback to the Saints in a 0–0 draw with Glentoran live on Setanta Sports. On the opening day of the season at home to Drogheda United, McFaul came from the bench in the 58th minute and it took him just 7 minutes to end a goal drought that went back three years to win the game 1–0 for Pats. The season ended with St Patricks Athletic winning the Airtricty League title.^[6]

He returned to Finland signing for KTP for the 2014 season and had an excellent season as they gained promotion to the Veikkausliiga for the 2015 Season finishing runners up to HIFK on goal difference then via the financial demise of Fc Honka.

Despite some impressive performances and being an ever-present in the starting lineup in the 2015 season, KTP suffered relegation to the Finnish First Division (Ykkönen) .

On 14 July 2016, his contract with KTP was terminated in mutual agreement.^[7] On 17 August 2016, I-League club DSK Shivajians have announced the signing of former Irish youth international Shane McFaul for a two-year term (2016–18).^[8]

Honours

Club

Sporting Fingal

• FAI Cup (1): 2009

St Patrick's Athletic

• Leinster Senior Cup (1): 2011
• League of Ireland (1): 2013

Individual

• Sporting Fingal Player of the Year (1): 2009
• St Patrick's Athletic Supporters Club Player of the Month (1): July 2011

References

External links

• Shane McFaul career statistics at Soccerbase