NEW GULL PROFILE

Matty Hayward

Matty talks about the new midfielder

One of the more obvious locations for an announcement video had to be the Big Wheel, didn’t it? It provides potential for the pre-announcement pun, and gorgeous views of the harbour. As a side note, it was nice to have one actually set in Torquay. Hancox’s Handiwork has, thus far, focused more on Paignton and Brixham-based attractions, which is fine if you like the smell of fish. Lirak Hasani is the new man. It’s safe to say that none of us had heard of him before today; I’ve done some quite lazy googling so you don’t have to.

CAREER SUMMARY

Hasani was born in Cantley, South Yorkshire, and began his career with nearby Doncaster Rovers. Aged 16, he made his debut as a 72nd minute substitute in a 4-0 defeat at Luton, a cameo for which he was awarded Player Of The Match.

Over the following four years, the midfielder made a handful of appearances for his local side, including a run of three league starts in December ’21, a smattering of substitute appearances around that Christmas, and several runouts in the cups. Either side of that festive period, he took in loan spells at Matlock Town and Basford United of the Northern Premier.

In August 2022, the Kosovan Kaka signed for Gateshead, a club for whom he’d played one game on loan before the 20/21 season was curtailed. His second stint in the north east saw him play 16 times, and scoring once in a home draw with Boreham Wood. Halfway through that campaign, he was clearly deemed surplus to requirements, and made the temporary switch to Boston United.

Last season, he was out on loan again, this time at Conference North side South Shields. His industry was rewarded with 24 games and two goals. This earned the youngster a return to Gateshead’s starting XI, but that only lasted five appearances before he was shunted back out to Shields for the remainder of the season.

He joins Torquay on a free, having been released by the playoff-denied Heed in the Summer.

HIGHLIGHTS

1 minute 30 into Gateshead Vs Boreham Wood highlights – surely the worst-supported fifth tier game in England – you can see Hasani nail a tidy finish into the bottom corner.

And 5 minutes into this, our new man finishes off a fluid counter attack for South Shields at Farsley Celtic.

TALKING ABOUT HASANI

@nathanrbell2002 – He didn’t get to play much this season but he’s a hard-worker and when he went on loan to South Shields he made a real difference there. He won their player of the month award in August I think so he’s clearly got something about him. Fingers crossed it works out down south for him.

HASANI STATS

DATE OF BIRTH: 25TH JUNE 2002 – 21 YEARS-OLD

HEIGHT: 1.82M

POSITION: MIDFIELDER

NL 23-24 STATS: APPEARANCES 5, GOALS 0

MOST LIKELY/LEAST LIKELY

Most Likely To

Have something in common with Dua Lipa! Like her, his parents are Kosovo-Albanian. It stands to reason that, when we eventually compile his song, it is backed by a Dua hit, probably ‘Houdini’. It’s one for the workshop…
Get his foot on the ball and play. He appears to be a creative player, rather than a box-crashing goal-scorer. Reports suggest that he’s a standard central midfielder, but Transfermarkt reckons that he has played on both wings in his short career too.

Least Likely To

Shrink on a rainy Tuesday night at Stroud. This lad has played for Donny, and won, at Scunthorpe twice in the same season. He’s spent the last two years in the far north-east. He’s hard as nails, and will find anything above zero degrees to be positively tropical.
Be coming down here for anything other than a full-time contract. Excellent signs…

CONCLUSION

Hasani is another bright acquisition. I’m pleased that we aren’t just pursuing local players that we’ve all heard of. It’s indicative of the club, finally, broadening their scouting range and flexing a refreshed contact book. I also really like the fact that the players we’re signing, even when young, have played a significant amount of men’s football. Too often in recent years, we’ve gambled on youngsters who haven’t been good enough for Premier League and Championship academies. Without meaning to sound like the Prime Minister giving his National Service spiel, these kids have been mollycoddled and treated to beautiful pitches and state-of-the-art facilities. Of course, we can expect showers and changing rooms to be decent at most away grounds this season, because half of the players will be plumbers.

Lirak joins us with a decent number of senior games under his belt at this level and above; you’d think he’ll be looking to find a footballing home at Plainmoor. Of course, he might be another punt that doesn’t work out. I guess we’ll have to see.