Cobh Ramblers are delighted to announce the signing of James Stoat from Cobh Wanderers. A Cobh native, James started playing with Springfield Ramblers from the age of six and has progressed to become one of the town’s brightest young players. He was Wanderers’ Young Player of the Year last season.

James had this to say about the move, ‘l started playing with Ramblers at underage level when I was six and that’s when I realised that all I wanted to do was to play football. I stayed with them until I was 16 and we got the choice to go to the u19 League of Ireland team. I wasn’t sure about it so I decided to take a year away from football as I felt I had no real connection with it anymore. I joined Cobh Wanderers the following year and I quickly began to enjoy football again. They gave me a great opportunity and I would like to thank all at the club for my time there.’

‘I’m really looking forward to the new season. I think that we have a very good chance of finishing within the top five and anything else will be a bonus as the team is still young and the players are still getting used to each-other. Personally, I’d like to score as many goals as I can. I think that any player interested in football at my age would like to be playing at the highest level they can and the League of Ireland is a very good level. The competiveness in the team and for starting places will be high and I hope that it doesn’t take me long to work up to that standard. I haven’t played at this level before and the tempo of the games are very high. I’ve only ever played once against a League of Ireland team, against Sligo Rovers with Wanderers in the FAI Cup last season. We lost the game but we gave a good account of ourselves and that’s when I realised that it was possible for me to play in this league. I can’t wait to get started and it should be a great season’