Action man Greg is happy to do his bit for the cause
Bit O’Red’s dynamic midfielder Greg Bolger wins Player of the Month award for May
GREG Bolger has become the first Sligo Rovers player in almost eight years to win an SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers Ireland Player of the Month award.
The dynamic midfielder earned the award for his displays during May, a month which included hard-fought victories away to Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk and Finn Harps – the latter two seeing Rovers play for more than half an hour with 10 men.
In the voting, Bolger finished ahead of Derry City’s Will Patching (on loan from Dundalk) and Gary Deegan of Drogheda United.
It has been a long time since Rovers striker Danny North won the award for his FAI Cup final performance against Drogheda United in November 2013, but Bolger’s praise of his teammates suggested that the wait for another Player of the Month award for someone in a Rovers jersey will not take nearly as long.
“It was nice to pick it up, it’s always good to get an individual award.” “But with the group we have here any of the lads could easily have picked up with the way we were playing last month.”
“I’d like to think that me being given the award is a reflection on how we played as a team,” he stated.
It has been barely a full year since the 32-year-old suffered a harrowing leg injury in a pre-season friendly for Shamrock Rovers which curtailed his season.
Bolger’s return from such an injury to be as influential as he is at The Showgrounds has been remarkable and puts a different, admirable context on this accolade.
“Last year was obviously tough. “The questions are going around your head at the time – will I get back? How long will it take me to get back? How serious is the injury?”
“It was then a case of just accepting that it is what it is.”
“I had to work as hard as I can to get back and I probably feel as fit as I have over the years, so I am delighted to be back at a level I know I am capable of. He continued: “It is not easy sitting back and watching games, I don’t like being in the stands.”
“I like being in the thick of it so I am proud to have gotten back playing and starting well here.
“We had a bad result against Drogheda but long may the form we had shown in previous weeks continue.” Rovers’ 2-1 defeat against Drogheda United last Saturday ended a run of five consecutive victories and an unbeaten run of seven games.
But Bolger is confident that Rovers will quickly move on and focus on making amends with an away result against St Patrick’s Athletic tomorrow, Friday.
“We can’t dwell on what happened against Drogheda, it’s a long season, we won’t win every game.
“Drogheda are a good side, they are fit and well-organised and punished us with two goals which were probably my fault to be honest.”
He added: “It was one of those nights – but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. We won’t dwell on it so we will move straight on to preparing for St Pat’s.”