One of Barnsley’s longest serving players has finally ended his association with the club after winger Martin Devaney signed a one year contract with League One Tranmere Rovers.
The 31 year old made 176 appearances for Barnsley under three different managers in a six year spell after arriving on a free transfer from Watford in 2005.
Disco, as he was affectionatly known by fans played a key role in the club’s promotion to the Championship via the League One Play-Offs in his first season, making 48 appearances and scoring eight goals.
He became renowned for his crossing whilst at Oakwell and arguably contributed to three of the most important goals in the club’s recent history as he crossed for Paul Hayes to give The Reds the lead in the play-off final, and also put the ball on the head of Stephen Foster to equalise in the FA Cup tie at Liverpool before whipping in a beauty for Kayode Odejayi to head the memorable winner against Chelsea in the next round.
Unfortunately the former Cheltenham man has found games hard to come by in the past couple of seasons and has made only 17 inthe past two seasons with his only start in 2010-2011 coming in the 4-0 hammering at Queens Park Rangers on the opening day. During that time he has enjoyed loan spells at Walsall and Milton Keynes Dons. He was released by the Reds this summer when his contract expired and he has teamed up with manager Les Parry at Prenton Park hoping to inspire Rovers to a better season after finishing 18th last year. Incredibly Devaney could be the man to replace young starlet Dale Jennings who has just sealed a once in a lifetime move to German giants Bayern Munich for £1.8m.