Ruairí Keating had been voted the SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers Ireland Player of the Month for September after scoring five goals in five games for Cork City.
Despite the Leesiders’ relegation worries, the 28-year-old striker netted a career-first hat-trick in the 3-0 win over Sligo Rovers at the start of the month.
In the emotional celebration that followed, he paid tribute to his late father Ciarán, who tragically passed away in a car crash while driving to watch his son play away to Sligo seven weeks earlier.
Ruairí followed that with a stoppage-time winner in the FAI Cup quarter-final comeback against Wexford having teed up Malik Dijksteel for an equaliser minutes earlier.
He added a penalty in the 2-1 loss to Shelbourne, his 12th league goal, which leaves him one behind Jonathan Afolabi and Chris Forrester in the top-scorer charts.
He beat in-form Derry City midfielder Will Patching in the vote of Irish soccer writers, while Galway United talisman Stephen Walsh, who last month helped secure his team the First Division title and a place in the FAI Cup semi-finals, was third.
Drogheda United’s Dayle Rooney, Lee Grace of Shamrock Rovers, and St Patrick’s Athletic forward Tommy Lonergan were also nominated.
“It’s a great achievement to win the Player of the Month award and it’s a very proud moment for me and my family. I’m really, really delighted,” said Keating.
The Westport native, who has already matched his goalscoring tally from the 2022 season when he helped City to promotion, was previously nominated for the award last March. He is now targeting another personal honour before the season is out.
“It would be a proud moment for me to win the Golden Boot. It wasn’t a goal of mine at the start of the season or anything like that. I just wanted to play as much as I could and score as many goals as I could.
“We have four games left and I’m one off it so it’s definitely something I’m chasing towards the end. It would be lovely to have my name on it.”
His primary concern will be helping to secure Premier Division safety for City in a likely relegation play-off.
“We did brilliantly last year to get promoted and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy; that transition to better teams and tougher games. You get punished for mistakes, it’s a very good league,” said Keating.
“I think we’ve done quite well. A lot has gone on this year, it’s been very difficult, and we’ve been up and down. But I think at the end of it, if you could say we were one game away from a cup final and secured our Premier Division status for next year, you’d be delighted.”