Media
- Thursday April 12th, 2007 @ 14:42
St Pat’s March On To The Beat Set By Alan Kirby
It was little surprise to learn that Alan Kirby had been voted ‘Player of the Month' for March by the members of the Soccer Writers Association.
The former Aston Villa, Waterford United and Longford Town player has been a revelation for the Dubliners since joining them ahead of this campaign and has slotted comfortably into John McDonnell's starting eleven.
Kirby was a strong force during the month of March as the Saints began the season in impressive style with a one hundred percent record in the league.
They also progressed comfortably into the semi-finals of the Setanta Sports Cup. Kirby was on target three times with goals in the cross border competition against Dungannon (twice) and Cork City.
Twenty-nine years old, Kirby is thrilled to pick up the award for the first time although he acknowledges that any number of the St Patrick's players would have been worthy winners.
"It's great to get any accolade", he said, "I'm delighted. It's something that I've seen a lot of other players winning over the years and always thought it would be nice to win myself.
"March was a great month for us. It's frightening really how well things have come together. Everything has clicked brilliantly and there are probably five or six other players at the club that would have deserved this award too. We've had the likes of Mark Quigley and Anto Murphy scoring plenty of goals."
Kirby is enjoying his key role in the Saints new look midfield forming, a three man central partnership with Joseph Ndo and Keith Fahey, which has proved to be the cornerstone of their success so far.
"The system is making a real difference to our performance", says Kirby. "I'm used to playing as a winger but I like playing in the centre because the thing about being on the wing is that sometimes the game will pass you by and you're relying on other people to get you into the game. Our system is definitely giving other teams something to think about."
