THERE AREN’T many English-based Irish midfielders who have enjoyed as satisfying a season so far as Gavin Kilkenny.

The 21-year-old has started nine times in the Championship for a Bournemouth side who are currently top of the table.

Before this season, Kilkenny had featured just once in England’s second-tier and was very much a bit-part player.

Moreover, initially regarded as specialising as a winger or a number 10, Kilkenny has more recently thrived as a defensive midfielder both for Ireland U21s and under the tutelage of Cherries boss Scott Parker.

“I probably moved into that position two years ago,” he explains. “I think it was just that I wasn’t really playing for Ireland at the time. I was doing a lot of training with the Bournemouth first-team; I was training more so than playing. I played a couple of cup games in the midfield against lower teams, so I think nobody really took it seriously in the sense that I was playing in a deeper role because it was like coming in for a cup game and then ‘he’s not played again for six months,’ and then Covid hit.

“Probably because I wasn’t playing as much for Bournemouth people didn’t realise, I was training the deep position for the last 18 months to two years so for me it was nothing new.

“The new manager has come in and he took that to another level in a sense as that might be my best position. Previously for Ireland, I was playing out wide because that’s where I played as a kid growing up. It just took for me to be playing regular first-team football for people to see that’s where I play.”

Of Parker’s influence, Kilkenny adds: “There’s no better man to learn off. He’s changed different things in my game, he’s changed the whole squad but especially myself in looking at the game in terms of how a midfielder needs to play.

“It’s not just what you do on the ball or how you look on the ball, it’s a lot deeper than that and other aspects are most important.

“So, I think that was a big change in the way I see the position, he’s been massive because he’s been there and done it, so when he talks, you listen. I think he’s been a big help.”

It has not been all plain sailing for Kilkenny though. Before the last international window, he was dropped from the Bournemouth starting XI but has recently re-established himself in the first team.

“[Scott Parker] spoke to me when he took me out, so I didn’t even need to [approach him]. He came to me, which was brilliant, and he told me not so much what I needed to do, there was a bit of that, but the circumstances, as it was players coming back from injury and it just went against me, which was unfortunate.

“There was nothing I could do; it was a case of how I’d react and how I go about getting back in and then I needed a little bit of luck, which I got because one of the other lads was injured and then I did well. It was just a few different things that went against me and a few different things went for me this time. It’s just about taking your chance when it comes, so that’s what I’ve done so far.”

Before his resurgence, Kilkenny briefly looked out of favour as there were times when he did not even make the bench this season.

“It’s obviously the harsh reality of football. These are the calls that managers have to make and it just fell to me and it’s obviously difficult and disappointing. But these things happen, and in a way, it probably helped me because I had to fight back and show a different side to me. Character, to fight back and get back in the team, work harder than even I had done before and be fitter. Because when you’re not playing, it’s easy to fall off a bit fitness-wise. So I had to do more than I was doing to get back in. It was quite an experience to get back in and stay in.”

Some of Kilkenny’s performances this season have even seen him tipped for a senior Ireland call-up sooner rather than later and the Dubliner acknowledges “that would be the ultimate goal”. But his primary focus, for now, is helping Ireland U21s win their two upcoming crucial qualifiers against Italy and Sweden, having been ever-present in the campaign so far.

Simply keeping his place in the Bournemouth team won’t be easy either, particularly with the recent arrival of more midfield competition in the form of Ireland international Robbie Brady.

“I think that’s the big part of why we’re top of the league and why we managed to stay there. We have a lot of depth, we have six or seven players for two or three positions and that’s why, Robbie has come in, there is more depth which more teams don’t have that luxury.

“If you’re not at it, you’ll be replaced. As much as you don’t like it at times, that’s probably the main thing — pushing people on.”

Kilkenny continues: “[Robbie has] been in the squad, he’s doing really well. I think he hadn’t trained with anybody for the last few months so he’s just getting up to match speed. He’s probably there now. He’s done a lot of fitness sessions but he’s flying in training. I think it’s only a matter of time [before he makes his first-team debut], you’ll see him in the next few weeks.

“We do training games, 11 v 11 when there is no [game] midweek you do it. There was one the week before last when we had a midweek off. He looks really good for someone who hasn’t been training. He’s been keeping fit, he was saying. He’s not coming in cold, he just needed to get up to speed. Training at Bournemouth is really really tough.”