Drogheda star hailed as ‘most underrated League of Ireland player' as Kevin Doherty beams ‘I want to have him forever'
Keeley made a series of vital interceptions for Drogheda United against Bohemians but, late on, he showed he had another string to his bow.
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Kevin Doherty believes Conor Keeley is the most underrated League of Ireland player
Credit: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
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Keeley set up Josh Thomas' winning goal against Bohemians
Credit: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
The centre-half slipped the ball through for substitute Josh Thomas to score and
Keeley, 27, did not play in the League of Ireland top flight in 2023 after time in the First Division with Shelbourne and Cabinteelly and in the NIFL Premiership with Ballymena United.
His form earned him a move to St Pat's but his time there was cut short after he struggled for game-time after Stephen Kenny came in with Doherty delighted to work with him for a third time.
Doherty - who said he had 'no idea' why it had not worked out for him at St Pat's - said: 'Conor is the most underrated player in the league.
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'I don't want to tempt anything because I want to have him forever. I gave him his debut. He was 17. I used to deliver his post.
'Conor is such a good centre half. I don't know what other people's opinions are, but mine is that he's one of the best centre halves in the league and I'm delighted that he's here.'
Doherty was delighted with again getting the better of Bohs with his row with Alan Reynolds last time out put behind them with an embrace after the game.
Doherty said: 'It's the fourth time we've beaten them 1-0 in a row. Bohs are a brilliant side, with so many good players and you're not going to go and beat them 2 or 3-0, certainly not us.
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'You have to defend properly, which we do, and you have to take your chance when it comes.
'Our keeper has to pull saves off, our centre halves have to head the ball. The work rate is phenomenal. They work so hard. I know we all say 'we've the best fans in the country, we've the best work-rate' but we do, we have both.
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'Those lads, if I told them to run through the gate, they'd run through that gate. They are absolutely brilliant.'
Drogheda did annoy the home support by regularly stopping play but Doherty said: People always say that about us. Not once did I tell a player to get down.
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'It's nearly like the boy who cried wolf. Lads are going down injured at times and being told to get up.
'Maybe people do think that about us, but if Shamrock Rovers do that they are brilliant at playing the game and game management and all that type of stuff. We don't do anything different to any other team.'
Friday's victory followed a mid-season training camp in Spain which Drogheda arranged after they were excluded from the Europa Conference League because of Uefa's rules on multi-club ownership.
And Doherty said: 'I can guarantee you, if it went the other way, it would be 'What were they doing in Spain?'
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'We did eight sessions in five days in Spain. We all know the reason why we were there. We weren't somewhere else.
'It was getting lads together as well, letting them go out and have walks in the evening. We did have one night. We all had a meal together, then we went out and the lads went on.
'It was one night out of five, 12 days away from this game, because I trust them and I told them that.'
Bohs counterpart Rennie was frustrated and said: 'We dominated, I suppose, the whole 90 minutes of the game. We obviously needed to be more clinical in the final third.I don't think we worked their keeper enough.
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'And we spoke about it, making sure you keep the back door, you keep it nice and tight and solid, don't give them anything.
'That's just the way they play, everyone behind the ball, they try and catch you on the counter-attack, or else a set-piece. I thought we defended most of it well bar that last one.
'There's no point in getting upset with the referee or upset with the fourth division. They kill the game, which they've done a lot of. Credit to them, they came and did a job on us.'
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