Sheridan poised to return

Cillian Sheridan is on his way back to Celtic but it's likely to be a short term return.

The 20-year-old has started just five matches for Plymouth Argyle and failed to find the net for the Championship outfit.

Despite Paul Mariner replacing Paul Sturrock as manager Sheridan has decided that he won't be extending his loan deal at Home Park.

The striker said: "I'll go back to Celtic Park when I am finished up here and see what happens. I don't know what the club have planned for me but my plan is still to try and get into the first team at Celtic.

"It will be up to Celtic what I do next so it's out of my hands, but whatever happens I need to get some games in. I haven't been playing for a good while now. It's a while since I started a game and I have only been playing bits and pieces as a sub for Plymouth, so the move hasn't gone as well as I hoped.

"When I came down here first it was going well. I was getting games and playing well, but I lost my place after a while and things fizzled out for me then.

"I have 18 months left on my contract at Celtic so it's up to them what happens next. They may want to send me out on loan again next month, maybe to another SPL club, I don't know for sure, or I could end up staying at Parkhead.

"It looks like players will be coming and going at Celtic when the window opens next month. If players do leave it could open up the door for me to get back into the first-team squad, but they might also bring players in so it's hard to know what the manager will decide to do with me."

Sheridan spent the second half of last season on loan at Motherwell after scoring four goals during a brief spell in the first team.

Another loan deal seems more likely than staying on at Celtic with no competitive reserve matches to retain fitness and sharpness.

The u-21 rule, not Tony Mowbray's favourite rule, could help Sheridan out with the SPL demanding that club's list three players under 21 in their match day squads.

Evening Herald interview

Whatever happened to Cillian Sheridan

by Joe McHugh
As Celtic's striking options continue to reduce it's natural to wonder what has happened to Cillian Sheridan.

The young striker never figured in any of this season's preparations and quietly slipped out the door on-loan to Plymouth Argyle, managed by Paul Sturrock.

Sheridan's Celtic career seems to have been squeezed into two months of last season during which he arrived, scored four goals, made an impact then suffered badly after the Aalborg defeat last season took the wind from his sails.

His gangly appearance wasn't the easiest on the eye but there was certainly a strikers instinct to find the net whenever a half chance appeared within the penalty box.

INGREDIENTS
Link up play, running the channels and tracking back hardly featured in his game but underneath there was a footballer needing to develop the raw ingredients that started and ended with having an eye for goal.

Sheridan was packed off to Motherwell on loan last January for experience. He did make an initial impact but that fizzled out with Motherwell's season whilst Celtic supporters despaired about the club's striking options which consisted of hoping from week to week that Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink or Georgios Samaras would find some of the form that they had displayed twelve months earlier as three-in-a-row was spectacularly clinched.

Tony Mowbray quickly made the same assessment as Gordon Strachan had of Sheridan, not yet ready to be relied on.

Last week the 20-year-old scored his first goal for the Ireland u-21 side against Estonia.

DEVELOPING
Plymouth's struggles at the bottom end of the championship isn't helpful for developing young players but in football, like no other industry, it's sink or swim with Sturrock needing results fast.

Reading the local reports on Plymouths matches this season it seems to be a hard luck story week by week with a soft defence shipping goals too easily.

Comments on Sheridan have been rare, after losing 3-1 at West Brom on Saturday Sturrock said: "Sheridan did well when he came on. I think he's going to be an exciting player for us."

Strengthening his defence is the priority with the club's location a major problem in getting players to join Plymouth.


UPHEAVAL
A transfer to Devon requires a lot of upheaval compared to joining a club in the North West or Midlands where if it doesn't work out there are another dozen or more options within an hours drive to try your luck at.

Manchester United defender Craig Cathcart was on loan at Plymouth last season but knocked back a return deal in favour of Watford who face Plymouth tonight.

Sturrock admitted: "We have had another couple of knock-backs, and it's the usual frustrating answers we are getting at this minute in time.

"I didn't feel it was going to be as hard as it has been to bring people to the football club. It's a big obstacle and it's costing us dear.

"It's not down to finance any longer. We have discussed terms with certain other clubs and we have always reached agreements.

"We have always agreed with the agents of the players as well. It's when we have come to talking to the players, they have decided not to come to the football club."

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