Richie Towell delighted to secure 2015 SSE Airtricity League Player of the Year

Former Dundalk midfielder Richie Towell perhaps deservedly won the SSE Airtricity League Player of the Year award at the 26th FAI Football awards, which were held at the RTE Television centre earlier this week.

Last Season Towell scored 25 goals in the league making him the record marksman in Dundalk’s history in a single season. Not only that his strikes contributed to another record for The Lilywhites as they broke a 92 year old record for the most goals scored in total for a team in a League of Ireland season in the process (78).

Towell was keen to pay tribute to his team mates for all their work they had done in setting up the goals he scored last season.

"Practice [got me the goals] and the lads putting them on a plate for me - I'm sure they will tell you that, but every day just after training doing shooting drills and different types of shooting drills; to be fair the lads that we had at Dundalk they were adamant of pushing on and improving every day and it rubbed off on me a lot"

This award had added another gong to an already impressive CV. He has two winning SSE Airtricity League Premier Division titles (2014 &2015), Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup winner, plus both the Soccer Writers' Association of Ireland Personality of the Year & PFAI EA Sports Player of the Year. 

"I'm honoured to be honest I was up against two team mates Andy and Daryl who had unbelievable seasons as well; so to pip the lads and get the award I'm honoured for that"

As the stand out player for Stephen Kenny's Dundalk last term it was not surprising that the star man attracted interest from across the pond. In late November it was English Championship side Brighton and Hove Albion that the 24-year-old put pen to paper. He made his debut against Hull City in the FA Cup, however although he is still awaiting some league action he remains upbeat about his current situation.

"It's a strange one, I've really enjoyed it to be honest; people might not think that as I haven't played a lot but I feel like I'm progressing in my career. The training that I'm doing there (Brighton & Hove Albion) with the type of players that I'm involved with is only going to progress me as a footballer and that's what I want to do. Obviously not playing is hard but it is something that I just have to be patient about and stay ready which I am doing."

Currently Brighton & Hove Albion are in a prime position to gain promotion to the English Premier League as they are second in the table just four points behind Burnley FC. If the club maintain their steady results; Richie Towell could be making his Premiership debut in just a few short months. If this happens I'm sure a call up to the senior Republic of Ireland squad is just around the corner.