TOWN will hand a pre-season trial to teenage Irish striking starlet Darren Murray.

The 18-year-old front man plays for Newington YC, in the Northern Amateur Football League Premier Division, and hit 23 goals in his debut season to help them clinch the championship.

Murray has attracted attention from some of Ireland’s top professional sides, but has chosen to try and impress at the County Ground in July instead, and could follow in the footsteps of Charlie Austin, who was also unearthed from the amateur game.

Swindon’s head of player development, Dave Byrne, told the Advertiser: “I’ve got an Irish lad coming in for pre-season training.

“He was recommended to me and is one I’ve been having a look at for a while. We have had him watched for the best part of half a season, although I would imagine we are looking more towards the reserve and youth team at the moment.

“He is at an amateur club and the top three Irish sides have all offered him a deal, but he’s decided to come and spend pre-season with us, which is a massive boost.

“The lad is a 6ft 3ins target man with a little bit of pace, and he can score goals. We’ll bring him in and have a look at him. Potentially he’s worth a gamble.”

Byrne also revealed that reports linking Romanian youngster Dumitru Copil with an imminent move to Wiltshire are well wide of the mark.

The former Hearts midfielder has already spent time on trial at Swindon, but Byrne insists there are no plans in place to sign the 20-year-old.

“I brought the boy over about three months ago now and he trained with the club for a week,” he said.

“We wanted to play him in a reserve game but the FA wouldn’t give us clearance.

“He is an under 21 international and very highly-rated, but we won’t be following it up.”