On the Rise: Kevin O’Connor | OneFootball

The two seasons prior to Brentford’s promotion to the Championship in 2013/14 had been turbulent for Kevin O’Connor.

A serious ankle injury suffered in an FA Cup game against Basingstoke restricted him to just 18 appearances in 2011/12 and, six days short of a year later, he sustained a serious leg and ankle injury away at Portsmouth, which kept him out of action for five months of 2012/13.

Then there was whole penalty debacle against Doncaster, which still haunts many, despite the club’s meteoric rise since that day in April 2013.

It was a cruel twist of fate for a man who had been so important, so reliable and so loyal to Brentford for the decade before.

The misfortune meant that, even though he was fit and ready to face Port Vale on 3 August 2013, his role as a regular starter, or even regular substitute, had been diminished. At 31, he was mature and he had had time to come to terms with that fact.

“I could see the squad and I got the feeling I wasn’t going to play as much as I’d like to,” O’Connor explains.

“But I also respected that because we had recruited very good players. I respected where I was in the squad and I was realistic. I still thought I could play, but I also understood why I didn’t play as much as I wanted to.”

He played two of the first nine games in League One, as well as three cup games against AFC Wimbledon, Dagenham and Redbridge and Derby County, before his rotten luck with injuries returned, with a “frustrating” groin injury keeping him out of action for the whole of October and November.

There was little he could do except ride it out, but also step into his role as club captain.

“Uwe Rösler was very good with all that sort of stuff,” he says. “He’d keep me close to the squad and keep me involved with certain things. He was clever with that, but also genuine with it.

“I always felt I had an important role to play either on the pitch or around the squad to just do what I could do.

“There was a good group of players there, a real good core. We’d played against each other numerous times as well and we all had good respect for each other. If you take away my last season, where I wasn’t really a player, it was the best squad we had.

“We had Adam Forshaw, who was a fantastic player and, later, Alan Judge was playing out of his skin; we had good strikers, a strong defence, a good goalkeeper, top midfielders. We had a solid team with one or two flair players.”

In January, more than four months after his last appearance, O’Connor stepped into midfield for the 2-0 win over Port Vale and then played three league games in succession for the first time in nine months, deputising for Harlee Dean at centre-back alongside Tony Craig.

“I remember being nervous because the team was doing really well. I wasn’t doubting myself, but I hadn’t played for a while,” he recalls.

“Then, against Port Vale, I managed to step in, we played really well and won the game. It was pleasing to still be able to step in and help the team in those moments, but I also knew that, once Harlee returned, he’d come back into the team.

“It would have been interesting if I’d played at centre-back before, when I was even more mobile, because I can read the game well, I could head the ball, I had a good leap and physically I was fine. But it was a good challenge in those times coming up against quick forwards.”

In March 2014, a year after his last deal, O’Connor signed another new contract, which would take him to 20 years at the club and also start his journey on to his post-football path.

“I remember sitting down with Warbs and he said he wanted me to stay in a player-coach role for the next season,” he recalls. “He said he was going to give me free access to work alongside himself and David [Weir] and just learn from them.

“It was a fantastic opportunity and one that made sense with me slowing down a bit and the club going even faster. The decision was I either took that or went somewhere else and tried to play for a year or two years - whatever it would have been in the end - but I never wanted to do that.

“The offer I was given was a very good offer, very respectful to me and my situation, and I wanted to be respectful to the club as well. Looking back, I made the right decision, without a shadow of a doubt. It just all fell into place, and I was very thankful for that.

As he had been for the majority of the season, O’Connor was named on the bench for the Preston game, in which Brentford secured promotion - the second of his time at the club, after the League Two triumph in 2008/09.

Once promotion has been wrapped up early, pressure is significantly eased. It is just about reaching that final game of the season when the real celebrations can begin. But that year was different.

O’Connor had reached 497 appearances for the club and, with three games remaining, he now had the chance to become only the fourth man - after Peter Gelson, Jamie Bates and Ken Coote - to reach 500 in Brentford’s history.

“I had a rough idea, but the focus of the season was more about promotion,” he says.

“I wasn’t coming on in games, which I shouldn’t have been because I didn’t need to, so I remember going to Warbs and saying to him not to do it just for the sake of doing it.”

Away at MK Dons, he came on for James Tarkowski after 65 minutes. 498. Away at Colchester, he came on for Alan McCormack after 85 minutes. 499. And when Tony Craig was forced off injured after 26 minutes in the final game of the season against Stevenage, he reached the most unbelievable milestone.

“It must’ve been Warbs’ plan all along. He didn’t let on he was going to do it, but he clearly did it for me, which was an amazing gesture,” O’Connor smiles. “It might not have happened at all if we’d gone up on the final day of the season before because we’d have stepped up a level. Things happen for a reason sometimes.

“I’ve got goosebumps now talking about it. It was a boiling day and they gave us a guard of honour.

“I remember coming out on to the pitch; Dougie gave me the armband and the noise will live with me forever. It wasn’t an easy game, but it was perfect.

“It sounds like a movie in that respect; I don’t think you could have made it any better.”

Does it ever play on his mind that, without the disruptive injuries of the two seasons before, he may well have played the required number of games to take him above Coote to 560?

“Maybe, but you never know whether I’d have made 59 appearances in those three seasons. I like to think I would have done,” he reflects.

“I sleep well at night, but of course I’d have loved to have made it to 560. I’m very happy with 501 and I was very lucky to get to that number. It probably won’t get beaten, I don’t think. I did all I could.”