Gavin Cooney

AIDAN KEENA HAS worked on the art of perfect starts. 

Things were entirely imperfect when he made his first debut under Liam Buckley at St Patrick’s Athletic in 2017, in which he was sent off for a late tackle in a 2-1 loss to Bray Wanderers. 

“It wasn’t one of my best moments”, reflects Keena. “I came on as a sub, we were 2-0 down to Bray in Inchicore, first game of the season. We got it back to 2-1 and at the end of the game they broke with Dylan Connolly. I knew how fast he was so I thought, I’ll just take him down and take the yellow. Looking back it probably wasn’t the best tackle.

“He just gave me a straight red. Watching back it was definitely a red, 100 percent. I didn’t think it was that bad at the time, but without a doubt a red card, yeah.

“I can laugh at it now but back then I was like, ‘My God, what have I done?’. I was in the dressing room, sitting, waiting for people to come in and I was thinking, ‘I’m going to get absolutely roasted here.’ I’m glad it happened now because looking back at it, it was funny, a bit of an experience.”

Keena is working under Buckley again, this time at Sligo Rovers, for whom he signed from Falkirk ahead of the 2022 season. This time, the start has been note-perfect: five goals in six games to lie top of the scoring charts and push Sligo to second place, two points behind early leaders Derry City. 

Keena’s fine form was this week recognised with the SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers Ireland Player of the Month award for March. 

“I’ve not won anything like that before so I’m delighted. I’ve only got one Man of the Match award this season as well, Nando [Pijnaker] keeps nicking them. So am delighted with it.” 

Keena says he expected to hit the ground running as he arrived was already halfway through a season when he arrived at Sligo, leaving Scottish side Falkirk. “I wanted to leave Falkirk”, says Keena. “Things were slowing up for me really, and I just wanted something new.  I think it was just the manager just didn’t fancy me at all, all season. I’ve nothing bad to say about Falkirk, it’s a good club. But I just need something new.” 

Sligo was his choice, partly because of Buckley and partly because of the position in which the club now finds itself. ” The fact that there is European football this season and it’s a club that is challenging at the top of the league, it’s something I want to get on board with.” 

Sligo lost several influential players in the off-season, with Johnny Kenny and John Mahon travelling in the opposition direction to Keena to take contracts at Celtic and St Johnstone respectively. In spite of the churn, Sligo have yet to lose this season and Keena praised his manager’s ability to replace departed talent. 

“I think the gaffer has a good eye for a player. I think he would have been confident that he’d replace them. Maybe it took him a while to do it and people were getting anxious or whatever, but you can see he’s brought in Nando, who is flying, and there are couple of young boys he’s given chances to who are flying. I think you’ve got to give credit for that.” 

Words Keena can apply to himself.