FORMER Stoke City favourite Terry Conroy is leaving the club to take up a full-time position with the Irish Football Association.

The 62-year-old one-time winger, who has been employed in Stoke's marketing department since 2000, is to become a welfare officer caring for young Irish footballers settling in the UK.

He hopes to retain his links with Stoke – the club he played for between 1967 and 1979, scoring the first goal in the 1972 League Cup final win against Chelsea – through the recently-established Old Boys' Association of ex-players.