Brendan Moloney

By Phil Tooley

This article was originally featured in the matchday magazine for the Hereford United, when Brendan bagged his first senior goal to end the night on a high.

Defender Brendan Moloney, who celebrated his 19^th birthday last Friday, joined us on a month's loan from Nottingham Forest and he's done himself no harm whatsoever in the two games since he's been here.

He was a starter in the 2-1 loss at Brentford and also in the 4-3 home defeat at the hands of Rochdale, but his showing at right back in both of those games was full of promise.

"They've been two disappointing results," says Brendan, adding "We know that and we just have to put those results behind us and continue into the next game and make sure we get a win. However it's great to come here to Chesterfield and get two starts straight away. I've settled in really well and that's a great credit to all of the lads and the coaching staff here, it's brilliant."

The teenager has made the first team roster at Forest, so how does he feel the pace and style of games in League Two compare to the fare a division up? "There's not a whole lot of a difference. I'd played a few games for Forest so I knew what to expect, I've settled in and I'm enjoying it. As for quality, it's a league down and the quality might not be quite as good but the experience I'll get here in the first team is great for me."

Born in Beaufort, County Kerry, the young Irishman represented his County and his Country as a schoolboy before graduating on to the U18 and U19 Irish sides.

His club side as a junior was Belvedere, a well known outfit that has produced many players who've gone on to make the grade in England.

Thomas Butler (ex Sunderland, now Swansea), Robbie Ryan (ex Millwall), Richard Sadlier (ex Millwall), Garreth O'Connor (currently on loan at his former club Bournemouth from Burnley), Mark Kennedy (ex Wolves, now Crystal Palace) and Curtis Fleming, who played for Middlesbrough in the FA Cup semi final against Chesterfield in 1997 all hailed from Belvedere.

Brendan's own cohort of players included Garry Breen, who's now at Manchester City, and Celtic's Paul Cahillane. They all left Ireland in 2005 to sign on as youngsters in Britain, Brendan moving to the City Ground.

"It's a great club, we had four of five of us coming over here to play professionally and the lads are all getting on great. When I moved over to Belvedere there were lots of people supporting me and helping me to try and get a move over to England, so that was very useful. They attract good players to play for them because they play good football, they try to play good stuff as much as possible so the best players want to go there from all over the Country."

As a youngster he also played for Kerry who, in 2004, won the U14 Munster Championship, defeating Waterford 2-0 in the final. A report at the time said: "International right-back, Brendan Moloney was particularly outstanding, constantly winning and retaining possession with some courageous runs from defence."

Moloney remembers: "It was always good playing for your County, we won the Munster which was brilliant because we weren't tipped to win it, we were the underdogs but we came out on top."

The summer of 2005 saw him join Forest, why them? "I was playing for my Country and was spotted by a Forest scout and I went over for a trial, I did well enough in that and they asked me to go over again and it was then that I signed. My coaches there at the start were Chris Fairclough, John Pemberton and Nick Marshall, all great people who trained me very well."

As a club, Forest have never been afraid to pitch in young players, a fact Brendan acknowledges; "They've a great tradition of bringing players on through their youth system, the likes of Jermaine Jenas and Michael Dawson are two good examples, so it was great to go to a club that values its youth system."

In Spring last year, Brendan got his first (albeit brief) taste of first team football when, on 17^th March 2007 he replaced Kris Commons for a couple of minutes in a home game with Gillingham. Lewis McGugan had scored a few minutes earlier. "I turned up at the club on the Friday and my name was in the squad, which was a shock for me, being my first time and I was wondering whether I'd manage to get on or not but I got a few minutes to make my debut and we also won 1-0 so it was a brilliant day."

He was awarded Forest's Young Player of the Year award last season as he played regularly for and captained the reserves. "The award was great and gave me the feeling that I'd had a good season and that other people thought quite a lot about me, so hopefully the awards will continue!"

Full back, midfield, wing back and centre half were all positions he occupied during the season, and he managed a few goals as well as Forest were just pipped to their league title by a single point by Birmingham City.

Brendan had a couple of starts for Forest at the beginning of this season, he played for around an hour in both games, both of them ending up goalless, at home to Bournemouth and away at Swansea City. "It was superb to start at the start of the season, a great experience for me and I learned for it and hopefully there'll be more starts to come. Mind you, I was beginning to wonder if the team would ever score when I was on the park after all the 0-0's!"

Two great Saltergate heroes are of course team mates of Brendan at Forest, 2000-01 promotion skipper Ian Breckin and ex Wolves loan star Sammy Clingan. "Working with players like Brecks and Sammy is great, they give you the advice you need. You can easily go to them and ask for anything and they'll happily tell you what they think, just the type of players you need around the dressing room."

Yet another Celt at The Rec, he sits firmly on the green and white hooped side of the fence as a Celtic supporter.

As mentioned, Brendan has appeared for Ireland Internationally, "I've played for the U15's, U16's, U17's, U18's and U19's so I've pretty much been through the youth system so it's set to get tougher to try and get into the U21's and hopefully senior squad."

As an Under 18, Brendan was part of the side that won a mini tournament in Portugal, they beat Georgia 3-1 in the semi final and the hosts 1-0 in the final, "Playing for your Country is always brilliant. Getting away with the lads for a week or two was great and with the players we had we knew we could win it and we went on to do just that."

This season at U19 level, a bit more of a disappointment as Ireland crashed out of the UEFA championships in their qualifying group, with all the games being played back to back, again in Portugal. Andorra were beaten 3-0 but losses against Belarus (0-2) and Portugal (1-2) meant elimination, "It was disappointing, we let ourselves down and we let the people back home down. We didn't play well enough to qualify, so it was our own fault."

Here for a month at this stage, is that something that may change? "I'll just have to take things game by game and see how it goes and when the month's up we can sit down and see what happens."

One thing's for sure, he's done enough to prevent further errors that were noticed at Griffin Park on his Spireites debut, "They spelled my name wrong on the back of my shirt! MALONEY instead of MOLONEY, so I just mentioned it to the coach and they changed it for the Rochdale game."

PHIL TOOLEY