Cork City's Ruairi Keating has been awarded the SSE Airtricity League/Soccer Writers Ireland player of the month award for September.
Keating has carried on his fine form in front of goal into September, netting five of his 14 league and cup goals throughout the duration of the past month.
28-year-old Keating has netted 12 league goals this campaign, one back from leading goalscorers, St Pats' midfielder Chris Forrester and Jonathan Afolabi of Bohemians.
Having returned to the City side in mid-August after a leave of absence taken following the tragic death of his father Ciarán in July, Keating hit a career-first hat-trick in the league win against Sligo Rovers at the start of September.
He also notched a late winner in the FAI Cup quarter-final victory over Wexford FC, before slotting home from the penalty spot in the 2-1 loss to Shelbourne.
The striker, hungry for more, hasn't given up on his chances of securing the golden boot come the season's end.
"It would be a proud moment for me to win the golden boot," Keating said. "It wasn't a goal of mine at the start of the season or anything like that.
"I just wanted to play as much as I could and score as many goals as I could. We have four games left and I'm one off it so it's definitely something I'm chasing towards the end. It would be lovely to have my name on it."
He continued: "We did brilliantly last year to get promoted and we knew it wasn't going to be easy; that transition to better teams and tougher games. You get punished for mistakes, it's a very good league.
"I think we've done well. A lot has gone on this year, it's been very difficult and we've been up and down. But I think at the end of it you could say we were one game away from a cup final and
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