Hibs have confirmed that Dublin born striker Paul Heffernan has joined the club from Kilmarnock after agreeing a contract until the end of the 2014/15 season.
The 31-year-old is vastly experienced from spells with Notts County, Bristol City, Doncaster Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday – scoring over 100 goals in both Scotland and England. He will join former Rugby Park team-mates Michael Nelson and Tim Clancy at the club, as well as former assistant manager Jimmy Nicholl.
Heffernan joined Kilmarnock during the summer of 2011 from Sheffield Wednesday and actually opened his account with a double against Hibs. In his first season with Kilmarnock, he scored an impressive 15 times in 36 appearances and ended up joint top goal-scorer with former Hibs favourite Dean Shiels. He also helped the club to a famous League Cup triumph, and was in the team that beat Celtic 1-0 in the final.
Last season, he scored 12 in 30 appearances, including a hat-trick against Hearts at Tynecastle; however he missed much of the campaign with a shoulder injury.
Heffernan told Hibernian TV: “I’m excited about starting the next chapter of my career at Hibernian; hopefully my time with the club will be successful. I spoke to both Michael (Nelson) and Tim (Clancy) about coming here and they both encouraged me to join.
“It’s a good club with big support – I saw that at the Cup tie at Rugby Park last season – and I’m looking forward to playing for Hibs.”
“It’s strange – I played against Hibs last weekend and this Saturday I could be playing for the club, but that’s football – everything can change very quickly and now I’m excited about playing for Hibernian.”
Manager Pat Fenlon believes his latest recruit Heffernan – his 10th signing of the summer transfer window – will add further experience to the forward line.
Fenlon said: “We’re delighted to be able to get Paul – the situation concerning his arrival developed very late on. He is a good, experienced player and his goal-scoring record is very good. He knows the league inside out and he’s different to what we have.
“Paul comes in with a good pedigree and hopefully he will bring both goals and experience to the team.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
