I swear at some point I'll get to write some of these about players I actually have any real memories of.

Position: Centre back/Right back

Appearances: 3

Goals: 0

Arrived from: Nottingham Forest

Left for: Telford United

A player who has since built a very reputable reputation for himself, Neill Byrne was a player who possibly found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when he joined Dale from Nottingham Forest in the early stages of his career.

Having been born in Portmarnock, Ireland, the defender had represented his local team as well as the well-known youth club Belvedere (former home of players such as Wes Hoolahan, Matt Doherty and indeed one Swiss Army Jimmy Keohane) before being picked up by Nottingham Forest aged 14.

However, after four years with the Tricky Trees, Byrne found himself without a club following his release in 2011 and he joined Dale on trial in December of that year, impressing during reserve games and subsequently being offered an 18 month contract which was confirmed on New Year's Day 2012.

Playing mostly for the reserve side at such a young age, it was a surprise when Byrne found himself thrown into the starting eleven for a first-team debut in a crunch relegation clash with Walsall in March, playing on the right side of a back four. However, he was withdrawn on 63 minutes for winger Temitope Obadeyi with Dale behind and desperately searching for a way back into the game.

A week later, he came off the bench for the injured Kevin Long, playing 63 minutes in a 3-1 defeat at Yeovil Town and he played his third and final game for the club a few days later at home to Sheffield United, playing the full 90 as an inexperienced and frankly desperate Dale outfit lost 2-5 to Sheffield United.

Although I don't particularly remember Byrne looking out of his depth in these three games, Dale as a team most certainly did and it's probably a damning indictment of Byrne's suitability for League One football at that time that in his 216 minutes in a Dale shirt we managed to ship no fewer than nine goals.

The following season he was sent on loan to Barrow as no doubt John Coleman looked to sharpen him up as although he had the physical attributes for men's football, at this point the game was perhaps moving too fast for him in comparison to the youth football he'd been used to during his time at Forest.

He played just one game for the Bluebirds, but after Keith Hill's arrival at Dale he had a rather more successful loan spell at Southport, scoring twice in 10 games for the Sandgrounders.

Unfortunately, this loan spell didn't do enough to convince Hill of Byrne's long-term prospects and so he found himself released at the end of his contract and moving to the Midlands to join AFC Telford United.

In his first season at New Bucks Head, Byrne played no fewer than 40 games and helped the club to lift the Conference North title - and he dealt well with the step up to the Conference Premier too, featuring a further 38 times and convincing Macclesfield Town to bring him in ahead of the 2015/2016 season after six goals in 78 matches for Telford.

At Macc, Byrne wasn't quite as regular a starter as he had been at Telford, but still played 60 times over two seasons, scoring two goals before moving to the North East and enjoying a season with Gateshead, scoring one goal in 39 games.

He remained in the National League to join Fylde in 2018/2019, scoring four times in 81 games for the Coasters that included a play-off final defeat to Salford City. When the club were relegated at the end of his second season, Byrne again secured a National League move and he featured 40 times for Halifax Town in the 2020/2021 season.

This campaign at the Shay finally saw Byrne do enough to secure a move back to the EFL and he played his first EFL game for over nine years when he lined up for Hartlepool against Crawley on the opening day of the 2021/2022 campaign.

It was a productive season for Byrne and he showed that despite having the build of an old-fashioned centre back, he was also capable of playing out from the back at EFL level whilst with Pools. He scored once in 40 outings, prompting an undisclosed bid from Tranmere Rovers which was accepted in the summer of 2022, an ideal move for the centre-back who has been based on the Wirral for some time.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters