Carrigaline’s Aaron Drinan promoted to League One with Leyton Orient

CORK footballer Aaron Drinan is going up after Leyton Orient clinched promotion to League One on Tuesday night.

Even though The O’s were beaten by Gillingham, Bradford City lost to Swindon Town and that ensures a return to the third tier of the English football pyramid for the club who last played at that level in 2015.

Leyton Orient’s squad also includes Kieran Sadlier, who scored the winning penalty for Cork City in the 2017 FAI Cup final against Dundalk. The winger is on loan from Bolton Wanderers and he has one goal in 14 appearances for The O’s.

Drinan has been ever present during this campaign and he has scored 3 goals in 31 appearances in League Two.

This helped the club go undefeated through 13 league games, a run that saw them collect 27 points from a possible 39.

Last year, he scored 13 goals in 40 league appearances for Leyton Orient. He also helped them reach the Third Round of the FA Cup by scoring the winner against Ebbsfleet United and the third goal during a 4-0 victory over Tranmere Rovers.

Brisbane Road has become the striker’s home in English football, something he has built up to since making the move to Ipswich Town from Waterford FC in 2018.

Drinan first started out with Carrigaline United and he transferred to Cobh Ramblers in 2015. After a short spell at St Colman’s Park, he went to Cork City and joined their U19s.

His first big game for the club was the league final at the Market Fields against Limerick, and he scored an equaliser for City at the start of the second half. A penalty from Connor Ellis gave the club a 2-1 win, and this helped them qualify for the UEFA Youth League.

Cork City became the first Irish team to partake in the competition in 2016 and they were drawn against HJK Helsinki.

This was when Drinan wrote his name into the history books as he scored a penalty in the second leg at Turner’s Cross and this gave City a 1-0 win.

The striker scored again in the next round against Italian giants AS Roma. He found the net in the 20th minute and that made it 1-1. I Giallorossi immediately hit back on got a 3-1 victory on Leeside.

Drinan finished his time in Cork by winning the Enda McGuill Cup with a team that featured future City captain Cian Coleman and Republic of Ireland senior international Chiedozie Ogbene.

He went to Waterford in 2017 and transferred to Ipswich at the start of 2018. He was sent on loan to a number of clubs while at Portman Road, including Sutton United and Ayr United.