A list of players who have appeared for Preston & Crewe
Vernon Allatt
Chucks Aneke
Joe Anyinsah
Marlon Broomes
Harry Bunn
Aaron Callaghan
Graham Easter
Anthony Elding
Nathan Ellington
Jimmy Foster
David Gray
Sean Haslegrave
Jack Holland
David Hughes
Michael Jackson
Billy Jones
Mark Leonard
John McMahon
Dave Miller
Colin Murdock
Alan Smart
Eric Snookes
Alan Tarbuck
Steve Wilkinson
Wilf Yates
Player Profile – Aaron Callaghan
Aaron Joseph Callaghan was born in Dublin on 8 October 1966. He started his career with Dublin and made his debut in a 4-1 home defeat to Nottingham Forest on 23 March 1985. He played in 5 matches during the 1984/85 season which all ended in defeat as Stoke were relegated from Division One.
In November 1985 Callaghan joined Fourth Division Crewe on loan and made his Crewe debut in a 1-0 defeat at Exeter on 13 December. He made 8 appearances his last being a 1-1 draw at Peterborough on 4 February. He return to Crewe and made 8 appearances for Stoke in the latter part of the 1985/86 campaign.
In total he made 15 appearances for Stoke; his last was a 1-0 defeat at Brighton on 4 October.
Callaghan joined Joe Royle’s Oldham in October 1986 for a fee of £10,000. His debut was a 3-2 defeat at Plymouth on 18 October; he made 5 appearances during the season. His first goal came in a 1-0 win over Barnsley on 26 September 1987. His second goal came in a 5-1 win over former club Stoke in his penultimate match for the Latics. After 2 goals in 16 matches Callaghan joined Dario Gradi at Crewe in May 1988.
The defender made two Republic of Ireland u21 appearances in a -0 draw in Belgium in September 1986 and in the 2-1 defeat to Scotland at Oriel Park in October 1987.
His debut was a 0-0 draw at Leyton Orient on 27 August. Callaghan’s first goal for the Railwaymen came in a-1 home win over Colchester on 4 November, his next goal came in his next home match eight days later in a 2-1 win over Tranmere. He scored 4 goals in 41 appearances for Crewe in 1988/89 as Crewe finished third and promoted to Division Three.
He played the same number of matches in the following season and 39 matches in 1991/92 as Crewe were relegated to Division Four.
His last goal for Crewe came in a 4-3 League Cup defeat against Newcastle on 24 September. Callaghan scored 6 goals for Crewe in 158 league appearances, his final match was a 2-0 defeat at Scunthorpe in the Play Off second leg Semi Final match on 13 May 1992.
Callaghan joined Preston in August 1992 and made his Lilywhite debut in a 1-1 draw against Bournemouth on 15 August. His first goal was a spectacular one against former club Stoke in a 2-1 defeat on 17 October. He scored twice in 35 appearances but couldn’t help PNE avoid relegation to Division Three.
He fell out of favour and made just one league appearance, his last game was on 28 September in a 2-1 defeat at Carlisle in the Football League Trophy.
Callaghan returned to Ireland with Shelbourne winning the FAI League Cup. After a spell with St.Patrick’s Athletic he moved to Northern Ireland side Crusaders, winning two Irish League championships. After moving to Glenavon Callaghan won the FAI Cup with Dundalk.
His managerial career saw him player-manager of Crusaders for one year and in 2000 the club qualified for Europe after he had made three European appearances as a player. Apart from a brief spell as Athlone Town manager in 2004, he had been a coach at Longford Town from July 2002 until the end of the 2006 season. Following a year out from the game, he was appointed Longford Town manager in December 2007. Due to financial constraints at the club he resigned as manager on 30 August 2008.
Callaghan was one of the first coaches in Ireland to obtain the UEFA Pro Licence in 2007. He is currently a coach education tutor for the Football Association of Ireland and sports development officer for Dublin City Council. He was the 1st team coach at UCD and St.Patrick’s Athletic before taking over as manager of Bohemians on New Year’s Eve in 2011.
He was later rewarded by being offered a two-year contract extension by the Bohs board of directors, which he signed in November 2012. On 15 July 2013 Callaghan was relieved of his duties by the club's board of directors.
In 2015 Callaghan joined the LeagueofIreland.ie team as a journalist giving the honest views on a number of topics in the League of Ireland from a manager points of view.