SLIGO ROVERS STRIKER Wilson Waweru has been named the SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers Ireland Player of the Month for July.

Waweru enjoyed a fine run of goalscoring form last month, scoring five times as Sligo won all of their matches. The Bit O’Red moved as high as fourth in the league and progressed in the FAI Cup. (They have since bowed out.)

The 23-year-old finished ahead of team-mate Ollie Denham and Drogheda United’s Douglas James-Taylor in the vote, and he becomes the first Sligo player to win the award since Aidan Keena in July 2022.

“It’s a great achievement for me to get (the first) proper award I’ve ever gotten in my career, especially since I was in the Premier Division,” said Waweru.

“Last month, how many goals did score? Five goals I think, three of them – a hat-trick – was in the cup [against Cobh Wanderers] which was my first hat-trick ever in my whole career. I was happy with that.

“Obviously, I scored another goal against Bohs… they were big results for us and I’m just delighted to help out the team, and more so receive the award.”

Waweru said his goalscoring streak and all-round impressive form “starts from the training ground”.

“You keep banging in goals in training, when it comes to matchday you just bring it on to the pitch and it will just flow like that, week in week out,” he added. “You just have to get your head screwed on in training and then that will flow into the match.”

Denham was second and James-Taylor finished third, while Cathal O’Sullivan (Cork City), Dayle Rooney (Bohemians) and Kameron Ledwidge (Shelbourne) completed the six-man shortlist.