Published: Friday, 10th October, 2008 13:00
Doyle scoops top award
By Anthony Smith
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Man in form: Kevin Doyle was the Championship's top performer in September.
KEVIN Doyle urged his mother to find a bigger trophy room after scooping the official Championship Player of the Month award for September.
The 25-year-old striker netted five times in five appearances during the month and his sizzling form has helped fire Reading to within three points of leaders Birmingham City.
His impressive record include a sensational hat-trick in the 6-0 demolition of Sheffield Wednesday. That came two weeks after he struck his first professional hat-trick in a 4-2 victory over Crystal Palace at the end of August.
A further double in a 4-0 home win against Swansea City then followed before he turned provider in a 3-0 triumph at previous leaders Wolves.
Doyle now has eight goals in all and is top of the Championship scoring charts, two ahead of his nearest rivals, Chris Iwelumo of Wolves and Cardiff’s Ross McCormack.
And if his form continues the Doyle family pub back in Co Wexford could soon be pretty crammed.
“My mum has everything I’ve ever won in football,” stated Doyle. “It’s all proudly on display at home somewhere. I think she’ll put it in the good dining room, but she’s running out of space.
“She’s having to use the spare room now and hopefully she will have to keep doing that.”
Doyle fought off competition from Burnley’s Joey Gudjonsson, Michael Kightly of Wolves and Derby’s Martin Albrechtsen to land the award.
He admitted: “A few lads at this club could have won it, and a few lads at Wolves and Burnley too. But to get an individual award is always a nice feeling. If I wasn’t gong to get it this month I suppose I’d never get it.”
Doyle was central to Reading’s 3-1 home win over Burnley last Saturday, a result which made it three victories in a week after Swansea and Wolves.
“Burnley were on a great run and, if they had won on Saturday, they would have gone ahead of us so it was a big game,” he suggested.
“They played an extra man in the middle which made it tough for us. But we’re going to have to get used to that because teams will do that to try and stop us creating chances.
“We said the week could make or break our season. But we got three wins including the first one away from home so it’s been very good.
“But anyone can beat anyone. Ipswich beat us, Sheffield Wednesday drew with them and we beat Wednesday six nil.
“It’s the strangest league but if you get on a nice run you can get into the habit of wining games and scoring goals which is what we’re doing at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Doyle and Stephen Hunt are enjoying a short break with their wives before joining up with the Republic of Ireland squad.
Giovanni Trapattoni’s men take on Cyprus at Croke Park next Wednesday in a World Cup qualifier but their record against them is far from impressive.
Ireland lost 5-2 in Cyprus two years ago in a Euro 2008 qualifier and could only manage a 1-1 draw in Dublin, results which contributed to their failure to reach the finals.
“Cyprus drew with us last time and beat us away from home so it’s a big game against a surprisingly good team,” he said. They’re good footballers so we’ll need a decent performance to put right what went wrong.
“We didn’t play well over there and we took a lot of stick for it. But Italy went there recently and struggled. They have some very good players and even their club teams are playing well at the moment, especially against English teams.
“It won’t be easy for us but we’ll have 80,000 Irish fans behind us and we also have a top manager so there are no excuses.”
Doyle also believes working for Trapattoni can only enhance his career: “When he says something like `well done’ it fills me with confidence, especially when I think of the strikers he’s managed like Baggio,” added Doyle.
“He knows football inside out. It’s not magic with him, he just does the simple things. We work on shape and set-pieces and little things.
“If he does something in training he tell us it is because he lost two Champions League finals because of it and it’s great to have a manager like that at my age.”
Meanwhile, Andre Bikey’s Cameroon host Mauritius in a World Cup qualifier this Saturday and Brynjar Gunnarsson is in the Iceland squad for a double-header with Holland and Macedonia.
Youngster Simon Church is with Wales U21s ahead of their Euro play-off with England at Ninian Park on Friday night with the return leg at Villa Park next Tuesday.
However, Marek Matejovsky and Jem Karacan have withdrawn from the Czech republic and Turkey Under 21 squad respectively through injury.
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