Northampton Town have made their fourth signing in as many days with the arrival of midfielder Cameron McGeehan.
The Northern Irishman has signed a two year contract to sign for the Cobblers, with the 29-year-old rejecting a new deal with previous club Colchester United to move to Sixfields.
McGeehan joins James Wilson, Nik Tzanev and Callum Morton in joining Jon Brady’s side as they prepare for a second season in League One.
After starting out in the academy of Norwich City, McGeehan had two successful loans with Luton Town before joining the Hatters on a permanent basis in 2015. In all, McGeehan scored 28 goals in 88 appearances in his time with the club.
McGeehan left Luton to join Barnsley in 2017, helping the Tykes win promotion in the 2018/19 season in the process. He also had time out on loan from Oakwell with Scunthorpe United and Portsmouth.
After 3 years in Belgium with Oostend, McGeehan returned to England to join Colchester, scoring 10 in 39 for the Essex club last season.
McGeehan has also received international recognition, making a cap for the Northern Ireland team.
Cobblers boss Jon Brady praised his new arrival as an option who would fit in well with his project.
He said, “Cam is another player who really suits our style.
“He has had a lot of interest in his services this summer from a number of clubs and there has been a fair bit of media speculation about his future and I am delighted we have been able to bring him to Sixfields.
“Cam is an attacking midfielder who is very competitive, he sets the tempo high and he plays with a lot of energy and power. He works well both on and off the ball and we think he is a really good fit for us.
“He has the pedigree of playing at a number of different levels and he has a quality about his play that I think supporters will enjoy watching.
“We believe Cam can be a good signing for us, he played a lot of football last season and he is eager to get started with us.”
MK Dons have announced former Premier League midfielder Tom Carroll as their eighth signing of the summer transfer window.
Carroll, formerly of Spurs and Swansea, will join the Dons on a free transfer after turning down a contract extension with League One side Exeter City.
The 32-year-old midfielder has signed a contract of undisclosed length with the Dons, and is the team’s second signing in as many days after the arrival of Liam Kelly from Crawley yesterday.
Carroll began his professional career with Spurs, where he made 56 appearances in all competitions, 30 of which came as Spurs finished second in the Premier League in the 2015/16 season.
The midfielder also enjoyed loan spells with Leyton Orient, Derby, QPR and Swansea, before joining Swansea on a permanent basis in 2017.
After spells with QPR and Ipswich, Carroll had a busy season with Exeter last season, making 45 first team appearances in all competitions for the Grecians last season.
Carroll told the official MK Dons website that he was impressed with Head Coach Mike Williamson’s plans of how he wants the team to play, and he felt he had made the right move to try and help the team to promotion next season.
He said, “I spoke to the manager, and I think we see football in a very similar way, I think the style of play is going to suit me and the group that the staff are getting together looks like it’s going to be really strong.
“Hopefully, we can have a good season, and there’s no hiding away from the end goal which is promotion.
“I’ve been lucky enough to play here a couple of times, but when you walk out there you realise how much potential this Club has. I’m looking forward to it and seeing the fans.
“Hopefully, we can put in some good performances, and it will be special year come the end of it.”
Luton Town have announced they will play a six game schedule in pre-season, while the Hatters have also received notification of 5 games being broadcast on TV.
Between 13th July and 3rd August, Luton will start their programme of pre-season friendlies against Danish side Aarhus in a game behind closed doors at their training ground The Brache, before they play two friendlies behind closed doors in a training camp in Slovenia against Ukrainian outfit Rukh Lviv and Göztepe of Turkey.
Rob Edwards’ side will then play an away game against Dundee United in Scotland on 26th July, before a designated Luton Town 11 comprising reserve and first team players will travel to play League Two side Port Vale on 30th July.
The Hatters’ final pre-season friendly will see Luton host La Liga side Celta Vigo to Kenilworth Road on Saturday 3rd August. Luton have confirmed tickets to the game will be made available from 15th July, with a specific ticket plan to be announced in due course.
Luton will stream the games against Aarhus, Rukh Lviv, Göztepe and Celta Vigo on their LTFC+ streaming platform, while Dundee United will do a similar streaming arrangement for the game against Luton.
Meanwhile, Luton will have five of their Championship matches in August and September 2024 broadcast by Sky Sports in the UK.
The Hatters’ opening game against Burnley had already been selected for broadcast, with Sky broadcasting all EFL games on the opening weekend, but Luton’s games against Portsmouth, QPR, Millwall and Plymouth will also now be moved from their original slots for live TV coverage.
Luton’s game at last season’s League One winners Portsmouth will be a 12:30pm kick-off on Saturday August 17th, while their home game against QPR has been moved to being an 8pm kick-off on Friday August 30th.
The other two games to be moved will be the Hatters’ trip to play Millwall, which will be a 12:30pm kick-off on Saturday 14th September, and Luton’s trip to Plymouth, which will now take place on Friday 27th September as an 8pm kick-off.
Luton’s games against Preston on 24th August and Sheffield Wednesday on 21st September will remain in Saturday 3pm kick-off slots.
The Labour Party will represent all 3 seats that cover Milton Keynes in the next Parliament after their candidates won in the election.
In Milton Keynes’ first election with 3 MPs, Labour candidates Callum Anderson, Chris Curtis and Emily Darlington were the winners, with Anderson winning the Buckingham and Bletchley seat, Curtis in the MK North ballot and Darlington elected MP for Milton Keynes Central.
The results are the first time that Labour has won any Parliamentary seat in Milton Keynes since 2005, and comes in the year the party also won a majority of seats on Milton Keynes City Council.
The result also means that incumbent Conservative MPs Iain Stewart and Ben Everitt will leave Westminster. Stewart had spent 14 years representing Milton Keynes, having first won election to the then-new Milton Keynes South constituency in 2010, while Everitt replaced former incumbent Mark Lancaster at the last election in 2019.
This was Milton Keynes’ first election with three MPs as per boundary reviews since the last election in 2019. The existing Milton Keynes North remained a named constituency but with revised boundaries, while South was replaced with some areas merged with Buckingham to make the Buckingham and Bletchley seat and other parts made into a new seat called Milton Keynes Central.
On a night that saw Labour win a nationwide majority in a Parliamentary election for the first time since 2005, all 3 results in Milton Keynes would see a Labour candidate win, with a Conservative as runner-up, Reform UK candidate in third and Liberal Democrat in fourth.
The Buckingham and Bletchley seat was the first to declare a final result just before 3:20am and was the closest of the three, with Labour candidate Anderson beating sitting MP Stewart by less than 2,500 votes. Anderson recorded 17,602 votes, just ahead of Stewart’s 15,181.
Reform’s Jordan Cattell was next with 7,468 votes, followed by Liberal Democrat candidate Dominic Dyer on 4,300, Amanda Onwuemene of the Greens with 2,590 and independent Ray Brady, who picked up 500 votes. Turnout was 63.94%.
Next to announce a result was the Milton Keynes North constituency, who declared a result at 3:40am. The results in this seat saw Curtis beat incumbent Tory MP Everitt. Labour picked up 19,318 votes, just over 5,000 more than the 13,888 picked up by Everitt and the Tories.
Reform’s Jane Anne Duckworth was third on 6,164, with the Lib Dem’s Clare Tevlin recording 3,365 votes and the Green’s Alan Francis receiving 3,242 votes. Turnout was 65.28%.
The final seat declared was the new Milton Keynes Central constituency, which announced their results just after 3:50am.
Labour candidate Darlington will be the first MP for this constituency after she received 20,209 votes. She finished ahead of the Conservative candidate Johnny Luk, who scored 12,918, for a majority of just over 7,200.
David Reilly of Reform UK secured 6,245 votes, followed by Liberal Democrat candidate James Cox with 4,931. Frances Bonney of the Greens finished fifth on 3,226 votes, while Alfred Saint-Clair of the Heritage Party had 200 votes. Turnout was 59.12%.
Northampton Town have signed former loanee Callum Morton, who joins on a season-long loan from Salford City.
The 24-year-old will return to Sixfields 4 years on from a spell in the second half of the 2019/20 season, which saw him score crucial goals as Northampton were promoted via the play-offs. In that run, Morton scored twice against Cheltenham Town in the semi-finals and the first goal as Northampton won 4-0 in the play-off final against Exeter City at Wembley.
After leaving Northampton in 2020, Morton had further spells out on loan with Lincoln, Fleetwood and Peterborough, before he left his parent club West Bromwich Albion for good in 2022. He spent time with Fleetwood Town before joining Salford City in 2023, though he spent the first half of last season on loan with Forest Green Rovers.
Morton is Northampton’s third signing confirmed this week, following the previous recruits of James Wilson and Nik Tzanev.
Cobblers boss Jon Brady told the Northampton Town website of his delight to bring him back to the club and that he felt the club would appreciate having him back.
He said, “Callum is a player we know all about and Cobblers fans will know all about and it is great to be able to bring him home.
“We know his strengths, what he is good at and we believe he will suit us and we will suit him.
“He is still only 24 but he has a good record at a number of clubs and we will play to those strengths. He also has experience of playing in all three divisions of the EFL and we think we can bring the best out of him.
“He is mobile, he works hard, his statistics show you he can finish and he is very much at home at Sixfields.
“I am sure Cobblers supporters will be delighted that Callum is back with us and he is the latest addition to the group of strikers we are working to put together.”