GLOVE ON THE ROCKS

Former Ireland keeper Kenny reveals his toxic relationship with alcohol led him down a dark path when retirement left a void he couldn't fill

- BY MARK McCADDEN

ELLAND BACK Kenny in action for Leeds back in the 2013 season

THE DAILY walk with his dog would always take him past his local.

And every day, Paddy Kenny would bring his dog into the pub, and leave “10 or 12 pints” later.

This was his life for seven months after he hung up his gloves, and had a short and unfulfilling spell as goalkeeper coach at Northampton Town.

Kenny - a former Ireland goalkeeper whose CV included spells at Leeds United, Sheffield United and QPR - was at a loose end.

Fast forward to the present and life couldn't be much better for the Halifax native, who grew up in an Irish house with an Irish dad on one side and Irish grandparents on his mum's.

Kenny, who runs his own transport business, is coaching once again, but on a part-time basis with Northern Premier League East side Matlock Town.

"I've only been there a few weeks and we've had two games, won both, so I'm enjoying it," he told the Irish Daily Star. "I don't think, at this moment in time, I'd get back into full-time goalkeeping coaching. But this suits me now, this part-time role that I've got, and I'm enjoying it" Kenny has run his own transport business, PK Transport, for the past eight years. Before that he worked for a friend, who helped him escape from his sevenmonth routine of near-daily visits to the pub.