On this day in 2020, Aiden O’Brien had his debut for Sunderland in a behind closed doors League Cup match against Hull City.
O’Brien became a member of the team recruited from Millwall during the summer of 2020, signing a two-year contract. Signed by the extremely exciting boss Phil Parkinson, he started his Sunderland career playing either on the wing or directly behind the main striker.
After scoring his first goal for the young team in an EFL Trophy match against Aston Villa’s U21 squad, the Republic of Ireland international faced challenges in securing a consistent position in the starting lineup. Following Phil Parkinson’s dismissal in November 2020, O’Brien continued to have challenges in facing more notable players like Gooch and McGeady (who was re-introduced by new manager Lee Johnson).
Nevertheless, O’Brien had a quite encouraging beginning to the 2021/22 season, recording a hat-trick in a league cup match against Blackpool. Despite his cup exploits, O’Brien didn’t feature the following couple of games and was very nearly sold off to Doncaster on the final day of the summer transfer market.
On January Deadline Day, O’Brien transferred to Portsmouth without charge as we made a last-ditch effort to reallocate some monies in order to cover Jermain Defoe’s monthly salary. Despite becoming a makeweight in a public relations ploy that had unintended consequences, he derived pleasure from his time on the south shore.
Aiden scored on his debut as a Portsmouth player, entering the game with 10 minutes remaining and scoring a goal a minute later as Pompey dominated the game with a 4-0 victory over Doncaster. In a span of only six months, he scored a total of five goals on 17 matches for Portsmouth.
Following his transfer to Shrewsbury in 2022, he had two loan periods with Gillingham and Sutton United, respectively. The Irish international was granted his freedom in 2024 and has subsequently repatriated to his country of origin to feature for Shelbourne.
Leave a Reply