Athlone's Alan named on League Two Team of the Season
Just days after celebrating his 400th career appearance, Athlone's Alan Sheehan has been named as one of the top performers in English football's League Two this season.
Sheehan, a defender with promotion-chasing Luton Town, was one of five players from the club who were yesterday included in the EFL Sky Bet League Two Team of the Season.
His 400th career appearance was also his 100th time lining out for Luton Town.
Sheehan has been a mainstay in Nathan Jones's side since he joined the Hatters from Bradford City in January 2016.
On the eve of his 100th Luton appearance on Saturday, March 24, he received further goods news that he had won the club's Player of the Month trophy for February.
In a closely fought contest with Luton midfielder Flynn Downes (on loan from Ipswich Town), the Westmeath man polled 30 per cent of the overall vote.
Speaking to the Westmeath Independent before a busy Easter schedule, Alan said he was pleased to have reached an important milestone with Luton Town FC.
"These events are all part and parcel of football. They are things you might look back on at the end of your career but the focus for me as a player and for the club is to ensure we earn promotion," he said.
Sheehan was also named Man of the Match in the 2-0 win over Barnet on Saturday, March 24, and explained that while it's nice to get an individual recognition for performances, the results are more important.
"Of course it's great to get the Man of the Match award. That was a big game for us and it put us level with Accrington Stanley but they still have two games in hand.
"The team is going well at the minute and our main priority is to get promoted to League One."
Speaking before Luton's two Easter games, Sheehan said: "I don't think it's going to be as clear cut as people are saying. If you look at the league table you can see that there's only a handful of points between the top four teams, the next couple of games is going to tell a lot about the way things pan out but from our perspective we need to continue to work hard in training and grind out the results."
In his first year with Luton, the 31-year-old Coosan native made 20 appearances and captained the team for the final seven matches of 2015-16 after Scott Cuthbert suffered a season-ending injury.
The left-footed defender, who plays his football at either full-back or centre-half, had a lengthy spell with Notts County where he made 114 appearances with the Magpies.
A former Ireland U21 international, Sheehan started off with Leicester City in 2003 and also had spells at Swindon, Leeds and Bradford as well as loans with Mansfield, Crewe, Oldham and Peterborough United.
He played Gaelic football for Garrycastle before concentrating on soccer, and he also represented Westmeath at underage level.
Luton's promotion hopes was boosted by a 2-1 comeback win at home to Mansfield on Easter Monday. It followed a 2-1 away defeat to Colchester on Good Friday.
Luton have five league games remaining and are in second spot behind leaders Accrington Stanley. With three teams securing automatic promotion, they currently have an eight-point cushion over fourth-placed Exeter City who have a game in hand.