Kieran Brennan

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Kieran Brennan

● Kieran Brennan, 2012 (ARB) Kieran Brennan was born on Tuesday, 14th April, 1992, in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire. The defender joined Jackie McNamara's Thistle for a trial in July 2011, having most recently been with Celtic. Aged 19, he made his only appearance on Saturday, 2nd July, 2011, in a 2-0 friendly defeat away to Blyth Spartans. Kieran's club-list included Celtic, Partick Thistle, Spartak Trnava, Arbroath and East Kilbride Thistle.

Bio Extra

Kieran was mainly known as a left-back who could get forward, and could also be utilised in left midfield. From the age of 9, he spent some 10 years with Celtic and earned a two year professional deal in 2009. He represented Scotland at international level from U-16s to U-19s, and featured for the Celtic first team in friendlies against Finn Harps and Shamrock Rovers. As a member of the Celtic youngsters he played alongside notaries such as Kieran Tierney, Stephen O’Donnell, Declan Gallagher, James Forrest and Calum McGregor. He was a key member of the crack Celtic youth side which won the league and cup double in 2010-11. The 19-year-old was gutted when his contract was not renewed that close season, and it was just after this news that he landed at Firhill, and was part of Jackie McNamara's travelling party for the opening game of the season away to Blyth Spartans. Kieran replaced Aaron Taylor-Sinclair (also a trialist) at half-time, as 21 players featured for Thistle. With the numbers involved (and the not inconsiderable challenge of ATS also vying for left-back) it was always going to be a big ask to get a deal, and losing 2-0 (both goals in the second half) will not have helped. Boldly, Kieran moved to Slovakia for four months and played with Spartak Trnava. However, he found the language barrier tough and got homesick, and was playing too often in the reserves for his liking. Returning home, Kieran signed with Arbroath for 2012-2013 but, in a Daily Record interview, would later confess that he was struggling to deal with the previous rejection and fell out of love with the game after a stint in the Juniors: Mentally, my head wasn’t there. I was playing every week and felt I was better than what I was doing. Part-time football is a different ball game. You’re trying to get a job and balance out everything in your life, plus you have money worries as well. I was going to work and then going to play with a junior team and you were running up hills in the pouring rain. I hated it. I was there and other boys were maybe sometimes turning up half drunk. Don’t get me wrong some of them had a lot of ability but after a while I got fed up and just stopped playing. After a spell out, Kieran got back in the game for a few seasons at East Kilbride Thistle, playing under Ian Diack (father of Thistle's Ricco!) in the West of Scotland League as the 2010s turned into the 2020s.

(WS/JK)