Paul Fennessy

AT ONE stage, Gavin Kilkenny looked in danger of becoming one of the many promising Irish youngsters who simply don’t get a proper chance to play first-team football at a high level.

The 21-year-old has long been highly thought of at Bournemouth.

However, until this season, the Dubliner was largely restricted to games in the cup competitions, making only one cameo appearance off the bench in the Championship last season, with previous managers Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall reluctant to give him a sustained run of games in the English top flight and second-tier respectively.

However, since Scott Parker took charge of the Cherries in the summer, the outlook has become more promising for Kilkenny, as the youngster has started four out of five of his side’s Championship games so far this season.

Moreover, having previously been perceived as an attacking midfielder, Kilkenny’s rejuvenation has coincided with a move further back to the ’6′ position.

The player’s excellent club form has also helped with his progress at international level — Kilkenny impressed alongside Conor Coventry in Ireland U21s’ 2-0 European qualification win against Bosnia on Friday, and is also expected to feature tomorrow when they play Luxembourg.

Of his improved fortune in England, he says: “Obviously, we’ve got a new manager and then we stayed down in the Championship so that probably went in my favour, and there was a lot of change within the club.

“Then I went home and worked hard [over the summer], came back and just put my head down and luckily the manager kind of took a shine to me from the get-go, so it’s going well.

“It’s really tough [not playing regularly]. You just have to keep at it and have a bit of luck along the way. Managers come and go, and you have to hope that someone takes a shine to you. So hopefully, at the moment I have someone that believes in me and it can push me on in my career.”

Parker, a former England international who during a stellar career in the game lined out for Tottenham and Chelsea among others, has been a big help to Kilkenny.

“He’s been brilliant. He’s a midfielder and he’s played with some unbelievable players and he was a great player himself. He works closely with me and the other midfielders as well.

“He gives you little pieces of advice, stuff that perhaps other managers that I’ve worked with probably wouldn’t have seen, so he can give it from a first-hand point of view.”

Of the deeper role Kilkenny has been increasingly asked to occupy, he explains: “It’s not completely alien to me. I played a bit there in training with Eddie Howe in 11 v 11s and stuff coming into that Project Restart in the Covid times and then last year, I played there in the FA Cup against Oldham.

“I’ve been playing there in pre-season this year and at the start of the season, but people just thought: ‘Oh, that’s his first time playing there.’ I’m not completely new to the role, but obviously playing it now in that sort of depth this season is new to me, I suppose.

“I’m playing it at a competitive level in the Championship. I was obviously just thrown in but wasn’t wholly new to it, I understand the role.

“At the moment, it probably is [my primary position]. The current manager definitely sees me there, he’s said that to me.

“I don’t mind, I love it there. When I play in that role, I can translate that higher up the pitch anyway, it’s not like I’m fixed to that one position. I can play anywhere in the midfield, to be honest. I played wide as a kid, so I can do anything in the middle especially and out wide sometimes.”

Given his stature and technical ability, Kilkenny has unsurprisingly drawn comparisons with an Irish footballing legend in Wes Hoolahan, though he plays down these similarities.

“It’s probably just because we’re both sort of small, isn’t it? Everyone gets that sort of comparison once you’re small. There are a few of those going around.

“That’s not a bad comparison, I’m not going to say, ‘No’. He was some player back in the day so I can’t complain. But unfortunately, I can’t accept it because of what a player he was.

“Obviously it’s part of my game, to be creative and stuff. But I’m playing deeper, so it probably wouldn’t be my only job – defensive [work] is now part of what I have to do and controlling the game from a deeper area rather than creating directly.

“But [if it is] me and Conor [Coventry], whoever plays in the middle, tries to help the attackers get chances.”

Kilkenny’s encouraging start to the season in the Championship has even prompted talk of a possible call-up to the Irish senior team and should he achieve that feat ultimately, he would be the latest in a long line of St Kevin’s Boys graduates to do so.

“The club have this plaque in the coffee shop – Damien Duff, Robbie Brady, Jeff Hendrick, Jack Byrne. So that’s always at the back of your mind. They always say: ‘You’re trying to be the next one of them.’ So coming through that was always the plan, to get your name up on that plaque, that’s if you make a senior international appearance. I’m not there yet, but that’s what you’ve got to keep aiming and striving towards.”