Dundalk FC's Sean Hoare bags SWAI Player of the Month award

Dundalk FC defender Sean Hoare has been named the SSE Airtrcity/Soccer Writers Association Player of the Month for May. 

Players from Stephen Kenny's league title chasers have now won the accolade two months in a row, following on from Michael Duffy's win in April. 

The 24-year-old defender wins the monthly award for the very first time, having shown his worth to the Lilywhites over the first half of the season. That has been especially true in the last month as the ex-St Patrick's Athletic player has moved to right back to deputise for the injured Sean Gannon. 

Before that, Hoare had excelled at centre back and developed a fine partnership with Dan Cleary at the heart of the Dundalk defence. 

Last month, Hoare started five of Dundalk's six league fixtures and also scored in a 2-0 win away at Bohemians. 

"It’s not really a regular occurrence for a defender to win so it’s a good achievement," Hoare said, ahead of the trip to the Brandywell to face Derry City tomorrow. 

"Last year was a bit of a transition for me, I knew it was going to be tough coming to Dundalk and with the success they had I knew I was never going to walk straight into the team.

"It was tough, I had a few niggling injuries but this year I’ve established myself in the team and when I’m fit I’m playing. That’s all you want and for a team like Dundalk it’s great."

Hoare's teammate Duffy was again in contention for the award this month but he finished second in the voting amongst Ireland's soccer journalists ahead of third place Graham Burke who has just joined Preston North End from Shamrock Rovers.