Having played nearly 400 times for Derry City in more than a decade at the Brandywell it seems that Paul Curran's stint in goal on Sunday when his side were beaten 3-0 by St Patrick's Athletic may mark a rather strange end to his career in the National League.
While City take on Bray Wanderers in the second semi-final of the Eircom-sponsored League Cup, Curran is expected to be signing up with Irish League club Ards where former Linfield and Newry Town manager Trevor Anderson is in charge.
Curran had been told by City manager Kevin Mahon that he would not be offered another contract by the club when his current deal expires at the end of this season and, at 33, the offer of three years at Ards appears to be too good for him to refuse.
He said last night that he was "delighted to have played for my home town club for so many years and honoured to have been given a testimonial a couple of seasons ago. But if it is finally time to move on now then that is what I'll have to do." Curran won league and cup titles with City and of those players still in the game, only Paul Doolin has made more senior appearances than him. In the circumstances it is a little bizarre that his last appearance for the club is likely to have been as a stand-in goalkeeper following David Platt's sending-off on Sunday.
In addition to Curran, Liam Coyle, who is serving the final match of his six-game suspension, will be missing again for the home side this evening while Kevin Mahon will give a debut to 20-year-old striker Bill Powell who arrived from Finland late last weekend.
Bray still have doubts about Kieran O'Brien (hamstring) and Maurice Farrell (groin) but Pat Devlin's side will still be full of confidence after returning to the top of the First Division at the weekend thanks to their 1-0 defeat of Monaghan.
Pat Morley, meanwhile, was yesterday named as the Opel/Soccer Writers' Association of Ireland Player of the Month for October. It is the fourth time that he has won the award. The 34-year-old scored six goals for Cork City during the month and has now moved to fourth on the all-time National League goal-scorers list, just one behind fellow Cork-man Donal Leahy.
Other players who figured in the voting were Morley's team-mate Liam O'Brien, Tony O'Connor of Bohemians, Sligo's Padraig Moran and David Ward of Dundalk.
The Irish under-17 team take on France in a friendly at St Francis's ground in Baldonnel this evening (7.30).
