Alan Kirby is one of Longford Town FC’s greatest ever soccer players having spent six seasons with the club in two separate spells, between 2002 and 2006 and again for one season in 2012 before finally hanging up his boots. The Waterford native who lives in the Longford village of Ballinalee played in four successive Cup Finals for The Town winning 2 FAI Cups and a League Cup, and with 214 league appearances and 264 overall in all competitions for the ‘Red and Black’, he holds the club’s all-time appearance record in senior soccer. Alan also spent time cross-channel with Aston Villa and he was part of the famous Irish Under 20 side that reached the 1997 World Cup Semi-finals in Malaysia where they lost 1-0 to eventual champions Argentina.
In a hugely successful League of Ireland career, Alan also won FAI Cups with Sporting Fingal and Sligo Rovers and he has three Premier Division League runners-up medals, two during his time in Inchicore with Saint Patricks Athletic and one with Sligo Rovers.
Alan’s father Dave was a Waterford United player during the club’s halcyon days of the early seventies and he also went on to become the club’s assistant manager under Johnny Mathews.
Our reporter, Tony Ghee met up with Alan to look back at his soccer career and he began the interview by asking Alan about the influence on his soccer career of his father Dave
