UCD's Jack Keaney coming of age ahead of first Showgrounds return

When creating his own path in his sporting career, Jack Keaney has never been a man to look back and reflect on the past. His main ambition was to always keep moving forward.

And that exact feeling will be shown tonight when the 23-year-old Maths & Biology student leads his UCD team out against his former club Sligo Rovers at the Showgrounds, where Keaney has experienced some of his fondest memories in his short footballing career. Keaney has played 54 times for the Bit O’Red between January 2016 and July 2019 - after coming through the underage ranks - scoring six goals.

And while the Donegal Town man has huge admiration for everything the Connacht club has done for him, he claims his sole purpose on his first return to the Showgrounds tonight is to get a win.

“I’ve played against Sligo Rovers a couple of times since I left, but never at the Showgrounds,” Keaney says. “I expect the reception to be good. In fairness I can’t say a bad word about Sligo. They gave me a chance when I was young, and I hope I repaid them with some of my performances. Let’s hope I can put on a performance tonight for UCD.

“The key about football is that you have to move on and experience new things. I loved my time there, but for me now as a UCD player, I want to go there and cause an upset. Sligo started brilliantly in the league and I’m expecting a tough match.”

The Students have struggled since their return to the topflight, three draws in eight games and sitting at the foot of the league. But Sligo Rovers, who currently sit on 12 points have lost their last two home matches, which Keaney has claimed can only boost his team’s morale.

“It’s a positive for us that they lost their last two home games, but we still have to go there and execute our gameplan,” Keaney added. “For us at the start of the year our goal was to stay in the division. Now that we have the first round of fixtures done with, and knowing what the teams are like, we are hoping to build on those performances.”

Like his motto of life on never looking back, Keaney does not take the negatives out of where his side stand in the league. While he feels his team needs to improve in certain areas, he feels the best is still to come this year from UCD.

“We actually have been really happy with our performances,” he adds. “There’s been a chance here and a mistake there, but it’s hard coming up to the pace of full-time teams. The one thing we’ve been lacking is trying to create clear-cut chances, but the key about this league is, if you go on a run by winning games, you build up momentum and go flying up the division.”

In all, Keaney knows he is no longer the 17-year-old that first signed for Rovers in 2016. He feels he has taken the role of captain of a Premier Division club in his stride, hoping it will lead to a victory tonight against his former team.

“When I was at Sligo, I was probably the youngest player on the team, and you could fall onto senior players for a bit of guidance when you needed it,” Keaney says. “Whereas in UCD we are all of similar age and we all have to take equal responsibility. But more so now that I’m captain and I have to lead by example and make sure I’m doing things right before I drive all the boys forward. I hope everyone sees that tonight.”