Paul Holleran has made young striker Kelsey Mooney his second new signing of the close season as his squad gears up for the new Vanarama National League North season.

The 22 year old, who has featured in the majority of Brakes’ pre season fixtures, began his career at Aston Villa, and was a regular scorer at Premier League U18 and U23 level for the Birmingham club, where he spent 12 years coming up through the ranks.

Kelsey turned professional at Villa in February 2017 and got his first taste of senior football in a loan spell at then League 2 side Cheltenham Town, quickly scoring his first goal.

He has previous experience of the National League North having spent two spells at Hereford, first joining The Bulls in October 2019 and impressing enough for Scunthorpe United to sign him last August. He spent another short spell on loan back at Hereford last season, but Paul Holleran was quick to make his move after Kelsey left Scunthorpe in the summer.

The manager had bided his time in order to bring Mooney to Leamington, and said ‘We’re absolutely delighted to get this one over the line. Kelsey has been ticking over with us until his official release from Scunthorpe.

‘Kelsey is well known to us and the area, and after such a long spell at Aston Villa I really feel he has all the attributes to do well at Leamington and possibly kick on. We’re really looking forward to working with him and the early signs are very positive, so we are hopeful that Kelsey will have an enjoyable and productive time with us.’

On signing for the club Kelsey gave us his thoughts:

‘I really wanted to enjoy my football somewhere again after frustrating last year on a personal level, and after going back and forth with the gaffer I feel like this is a good opportunity to do that.

‘My aim is to perform at the level I know I'm capable of, and just looking at the manager's history of moving strikers on, that’s the aim whilst helping the club win football matches.’