Adam O’Reilly has won the League Football Education’s (LFE) Goal of the Month award for January for his strike against Carlisle United.
The Republic of Ireland youth international scored the third in an emphatic 4-1 win in Cumbria for Preston North End’s U18 side, finishing off a flowing move by finding the top right-hand corner with a pinpoint strike from just outside the box.
⚽️🏆 Take a look at the #LFEGOTM winning strike for January 2019, with @Adam_o_reilly finding the top corner with a curling shot from distance after some slick build-up play.#pnefc @pnefcacademy pic.twitter.com/OQWX4QuPAW
— League Football Education (@LFEonline) February 14, 2019
The 18-year-old, who also signed his first professional contract with the club last month, received an incredible 48 per cent of the votes in the online poll and was delighted for his goal to be recognised, especially given the huge part his team-mates played it in before he provided the all-important finish.
“I’m buzzing with it to be honest,” Adam said of the receiving the award. “It’s individual but I think the overall goal itself with the build-up made it that bit better because it was just a great team goal. It was good to put it in the top corner with the finishing touch so I’m happy with that.
“It shows that we all have that quality to penetrate teams and score goals like that. We all celebrated it together because it was all one touch football because that’s what we work on in training, so to do it on the pitch made it that bit better and why everybody celebrated it so much.”
Adam now has six goals for the campaign, just two short of the figure he managed last season, the midfielder now keen to match and then improve upon that tally come the end of the current campaign.
“The goal for any season is to try and better yourself no matter what and I’ll be aiming to hit double figures by the end of the season, that’s the big goal for me and what I’ll be striving towards at the end of the season.”
The LFE recognises the best goals from the Academy leagues each month, with Adam’s strike the most voted for effort of eight nominated strikes for the month of January.