Player Profile

An Irish international winger, O'Brien was signed on a two year deal in July 2009, after the Town negotiated his release from his contract at Scottish Premier side Hibernian. O’Brien’s first season at the County Ground proved to be a frustrating one - after his debut at Gillingham on the opening day of the season was brought to a premature end when he collided with the advertising hoardings behind the goal, O’Brien missed a midweek Carling Cup win at MK Dons, and returned to the bench the following weekend. O’Brien made four substitute appearances throughout August, but suffered a hamstring injury in the last of these just minutes after taking to the field against Southend - and with manager Danny Wilson having made all three substitutions, he was forced to hobble through the last twenty minutes of the game.

It was the end of November before O’Brien returned to the bench again, and he made his second start of the season in mid-December, in a 2-1 win over Brighton. His third start came over the Christmas period against Yeovil - but he succumbed to a hamstring injury on his other leg after just half-an-hour - and though he returned to the bench in February, it was a shortlived comeback - a recurrence of his original injury sustained in a reserve game saw him send to a specialist to resolve the problem for good. Finally, O’Brien returned to action in May, making a brief appearance on the final day of the regular season at Millwall, then surprisingly starting the first leg of the play-off semi-final against Charlton - replacing Danny Ward on the left flank after Ward was moved up front in place of injured top scorer Billy Paynter. When Paynter recovered for the second leg, O’Brien dropped to the bench again, but made substitute appearances in both the second leg and the final at Wembley.

At the start of the 2010/11 season, manager Wilson declared that O'Brien's injury nightmare was behind him - and after starting the season on the bench, he gave a promising performance in a Carling Cup tie against Leyton Orient, before being named as the Town's stand-out performer in a 2-2 draw at Hartlepool that weekend. Soon though, O'Brien found himself again used only as an impact substitute - though his electric pace often put opposition defences on the back foot, too often the final delivery was missing. He didn't start a match again until the New Year, in a 4-2 win over Charlton that prompted Wilson to keep the same side for the following weekend, but when that game ended in defeat at Oldham, O'Brien was again benched.

O'Brien remained on the fringes of the first team into February - and a good performance against Exeter handing him further starts against Bournemouth and Rochdale - but another hamstring injury forced him off of the latter game in the first half, keeping him out for three weeks. He returned to the bench for a 4-1 defeat at Southampton that proved to be Danny Wilson's last match in charge before his resignation - new boss Paul Hart gave O'Brien just fourteen minutes of an away match against Plymouth before deciding he was surplus to requirements, releasing the Irishman by mutual consent before the season was out.

Playing Record

Senior

Reserve and Youth Team Appearances

Note that appearance data for reserve and youth teams may not be complete. Expand for more information.

Career details

Club	Details
Cabinteely Cabinteely	(youth)
Newcastle United Newcastle United	2001 (youth) April 24th, 2002 (signed professional contract); transferred out (July 1st, 2007)
Carlisle United Carlisle United	September 30th, 2005 (loan); contract terminated (rptd November 20th, 2005)
Hibernian Hibernian	July 1st, 2007 (announced June 25th, 2007) (transferred in compensation agreed); released (rptd July 1st, 2009)
Swindon Town Swindon	July 3rd, 2009 (unattached); released (rptd April 21st, 2011)
Yeovil Town Yeovil Town	August 12th, 2011 (unattached); released (rptd January 4th, 2012)
Gateshead Gateshead	rptd February 9th, 2012 (unattached); released (rptd April 30th, 2012)
Hungerford Town Hungerford Town	rptd June 11th, 2013 (unattached); released (rptd July 24th, 2017)
Chippenham Town Chippenham Town	rptd August 3rd, 2017 (unattached)
Wealdstone Wealdstone	rptd September 4th, 2017 ; retired (rptd June 29th, 2018)