Former Sheffield Wednesday man joins non-league club - replaced by Bullen with ex-Owl

Chris Maguire was signed by Bullen in February in what was seen as an attempt to give the Honest Men a boost in their efforts to achieve a historic promotion from the Scottish Championship.

The 34-year-old failed to score in 15 outings but did contribute four assists as Bullen’s side just came up short in the battle to go up, also bowing out of the Scottish Cup at the quarter-final stage and narrowly missing out on a famous day out at Hampden Park.

Now Maguire - who also played at the likes of Sunderland, Rotherham United and Derby County - has signed for Eastleigh in the National League. He is one of several EFL-experienced players to join the Hampshire club since the arrival of former Sunderland owner Stewart Donald.

In another tenuous Wednesday link to the story, Eastleigh are managed by ex-Owls loanee Lee Bradbury.

Maguire’s exit from Ayr comes amid Bullen’s signing of former Wednesday loanee Aiden McGeady over the weekend. The former Republic of Ireland international is well-known to the Ayr boss, who was on the staff at Hillsborough for McGeady’s 13 league appearances in the 2015/16 campaign.

Another former Sunderland figure who also had success at Celtic, Spartak Moscow and Everton, the 37-year-old joins as both a player and as Technical Manager of Ayr and will work closely with Bullen as they look to go one further in the race for promotion this season.