Thomas Morgan has decided to try his luck in Northern Ireland with Newry Town after two frustrating seasons with St. Patrick's Athletic.

The 23-year-old turned down the offer of a new one-year deal from Pats' manager Pat Dolan in a bid to gain regular first team football and signed a one-year contract with Newry on Monday.

Morgan burst onto the scene in 1997 when he captained the Irish u20 team to 3rd place in the world in Malaysia.

At the time he was a Blackburn reserve but within weeks became a part of the Pat Dolan revolution at St. Patrick's Athletic. Dolan signed Trevor Molloy, Colin Hawkins and Morgan, all of whom were current underage internationals, and declared that the cream of Irish football no longer need to leave the country to play top-class football.

Dolan's infectious beliefs rubbed off on his team as they went on to become league champions that season with all three new signings playing an integral part.

But last season Morgan fell out of favour at Richmond Park despite figuring highly with the Irish u21 side. He only played five games in the season for Pat's and decided his future no longer lay in Dublin but elsewhere.

He said: "I needed to get away and hopefully Newry can be a fresh start for me. Perhaps I might have stayed at Pat's if I was going to get into the team, but the way things have gone over the last year there was no guarantee of that and I need to be playing every week at my age."

Morgan was being chased by Cliftonville and Portadown but chose fellow Irish League outfit Newry after guesting in two friendlies for them over the weekend.