Sean Kavanagh admits he turned Derry City down

As the Derry Journal revealed, the Dubliner conceded a phone call at the last minute from Rovers meant he decided against a move to Kenny Shiels' side.

Kavanagh, who trained with City last week, will go straight into the Tallaght men's squad for their home clash against Dundalk this Friday night.

"Stephen McPhail and Stephen Bradley rang me and it came about quite quickly over the weekend to get it done for today. I was really close to signing for Derry, I was just waiting for my deal to get sorted at Fulham," he confirmed.

"But Rovers came knocking and I’m a Dublin boy. It’s tough to turn down Rovers."

Rovers boss Stephen Bradley was delighted to have pipped City for his signature.

"When we knew he was agreeing to leave Fulham we made contact. He’s been training at Derry and I know they liked him but once we spoke to him he said there’s only one place he wanted to play," said the Rovers manager.

"It was pretty straight forward, we met with him and it was agreed within two or three hours."