Costa happy at Avenue (From Dorset Echo)

Costa happy at Avenue

8:40am Saturday 17th October 2009 in Club news By Ky Capel

ANDRE Costa is keen to stay at Dorchester Town for the rest of the season.

The winger joined the Magpies a fortnight ago and has impressed with his ability to drift past opposition defenders.

However, the 18-year-old was all set to join AFC Bournemouth this summer but the Cherries were hit with a transfer embargo and have been unable to sign any new players since.

Costa continues to train with the Dean Court outfit and has even made a handful of appearances for Wessex Premier League side Poole Town.

But the Portuguese – who, alongside fellow Magpie Tom Mitchell, featured for Bournemouth Reser-ves in their 7-0 defeat to Bristol City on Tuesday – declared he is happy at the Jewson Stadium.

He said: “I’ve been in England five years but this is my first full season playing proper football.

“I started at Hayes & Yeading last year and I was playing for the reserves week in, week out. I went to Fulham on trial but that didn’t work out, then I went to Bournemouth for pre-season. They said they’d take me on but the embargo didn’t allow it.

“I went to Poole Town after that but I wasn’t enjoying it as much. However, I’m enjoying it here at Dorchester and I feel like this is the right level for me to play at right now and I’d like to play more games here.

“I just went to Poole to get games, but I’d like to stay here and play for Dorchester throughout the season.

“Of course I’d like to aim higher but I just want to concentrate on doing well for Dorchester. I’m just going to work my hardest and try my best for the team as opposed to myself.”

Costa could return to the Cherries should their embargo be lifted at any stage, however, the teenager insists he would be far from disappointed if the transfer ban remained in place.

He added: “Maybe I’ll go back to Bournemouth if it’s lifted. I’m still training with them every week but I’m happy at Dorchester so it doesn’t matter if the embargo doesn’t get lifted any time soon.”

Costa arrived in the county town just as his fellow countryman, and fellow winger, Ivan Forbes announced his departure.

Costa said: “I was looking forward to possibly playing with him as he’s also Portuguese, obviously he’s gone and it didn’t work out but it would have been nice to play alongside him.

“We’ve got some good players though, and I reckon we can do well if we focus on playing football like we can – like we did against Braintree.”

Dorchester travel to third-placed Thurrock this afternoon (3pm).