Bray Wanderers midfielder Darragh Noone was recently named the clubs Young Player of the Year for a second successive season.
The 20 year-old now has two seasons of Premier Division football under his belt, having previously played for the Under 19’s.
We caught up with Darragh to talk about winning the Young Player of the Year, his time at Bray, the troubles at the club and working under boss Harry Kenny.
First of all Noone told us of his delight at winning the award, “I'm absolutely delighted to be named Young Player of the Year. I was lucky enough to win it last year so it's even better to come back and win it again in my second season.”
“I'm thrilled with how the past two seasons have gone. When I first came into the U-19’s I was more a fringe player in the squad, so to go from that to regular first team football in a couple of years is something I'm very happy about.”
Everyone is fully aware of the situation at Bray this season off the field, but Darragh says on the field things couldn’t have gone much better for him, “I was reasonably happy with my season from a footballing point of view. I didn't start the season as maybe I would have hoped, in regards to game time, but I felt I finished the second half of the season very strongly.”
As for things off it, it was a tough time for everybody involved especially the players, “Yeah I must say everything that went on was very tough for us all. We were flying in the league at the time and I guess it was just a distraction to what we were doing on the pitch. We just had to forget about everything that was going on off the pitch and focus on what we could control on it, and I think that showed in our performances towards the end of the year.”
One thing missing next season will be manager Harry Kenny, after he resigned at the end of the season, and Noone has nothing but praise for his former boss, “I've a lot of time for Harry Kenny. He gave me the opportunity for first-team football last year at a time when we were struggling, which I don't think is something a lot of managers would have done. He showed a lot of faith in me after that and has always tried to push me on to be the best I can be over the last two seasons. I've also learnt a lot from the more experienced players in the squad. So I feel the mix of Harry, Liam and the lads have really helped me push on in the last two years.”
It’s a case of onwards and upwards for the midfielder now, as he still has a year left on his current contract, and he can’t wait to get going again for next season. He said, “Every year I just want to keep improving. Since the U-19’s I feel I've improved massively after each season I've played, so I'm looking forward now to working hard in the off season to make sure I'm ready for the start of pre-season.”
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