Biography

There are goal machines and then there’s “Bradders.” His twenty-nine league goals for the U18s last term meant that he almost trebled the next highest total, to walk away with a second successive Golden Boot and add to the forty-three in twenty-three turn-outs for the Academy (U19s), to go with various cup goals (18) between the two leaving him on an unbelievable ninety by May and 150 covering the preceding couple of campaigns.

One of those strikes arrived in the Champion of Champions semi-final against Central Division table-toppers Kingstonian. Reds emphatically gaining a modicum of revenge for the penalty-shootout defeat in September’s FA Youth Cup tie. Although Cray Valley prevailed in the final, Dolaghan received a first team call-up in pre-season. Typically bagging off the bench in a home tussle with Gosport Borough.

His competitive bow finally arrived in November’s Senior Cup exit at the hands of Littlehampton Town, a club he’s all too familiar with after serving an apprenticeship there. Six goals in a ten game period enough to earn him a Woodside recall. A full debut arrived in February in a narrow home loss to Braintree Town, accompanied a few weeks later, in his next match, with a goal against Farnborough at the same venue.