DAVIS Keillor-Dunn is hoping to make it second time lucky after being nominated for back-to-back Player of the Year awards.
The Barnsley forward, who has 16 goals and six assists in all competitions since signing from Mansfield Town last summer, is on a three-man shortlist for the League One prize with Wycombe Wanderers striker Richard Kone and Birmingham City midfielder Tomoki Iwata. The winner is due to be announced on April 27.
Keillor-Dunn was also nominated for the League Two Player of the Year award last season, having led Mansfield to promotion with 22 goals and assists, but missed out to Notts County’s Jodi Jones.
He told the Chronicle: “Two in a row. It’s lovely to be nominated. I missed out last time so it would be nice to get it this time. It’s one of those awards which gets chosen closer to the time.
“The team of the season is already set in stone but I think the individual one can be chosen up until the awards night so I want to finish strong with Barnsley and see what happens.”
Keillor-Dunn’s career has taken a remarkable upturn in recent years.
He spent the 2018/19 season in the Scottish second tier then dropped into non-league football with Wrexham just before the Covid-19 pandemic and before they were taken over by their current Hollywood owners. He was then relegated back out of League Two with Oldham Athletic in 2022, despite having a good individual season which saw him score 15 league goals.
A brief spell with Burton Albion in League One was followed by the last two seasons which have seen him star in the fourth then third tier.
He said: “I believe I should have been at these levels years ago but, for whatever reason, it didn’t happen and I am just delighted to be here now and having a big impact.
“It was a hard time at Oldham with the transfer embargo. But you have to keep focused and do as well as you can because opportunities like this can be around the corner. To be nominated for League One Player of the Year is nice but I am just gutted we couldn’t challenge for things as a team this year.
“I think next year, we can kick on.”
Keillor-Dunn took some of Barnsley’s set pieces in the 4-1 win over Bolton Wanderers on Saturday but did not take the free-kick which led to their second goal, despite shaping to do so then leaving it for Luca Connell to pass wide for Adam Phillips to cross in a training ground routine Conor Hourihane dubbed ‘the flip around.’
Keillor-Dunn said: “It just shows the attention to detail Con and the staff put in. It was a quality free-kick which has done the rounds on social media.
“You have to always keep the opponents guessing. If they nullify one threat, try to change it. It was really well-executed.
“We are just delighted to score a set play because we haven’t had many in recent weeks. We are doing a lot of defensive work on set pieces so hopefully we can keep them out of our net.”
