KILLYBEGS Premiership star Seamus Coleman has said he doesn’t want his season to end.
The 22-year-old told the Liverpool Echo that he is living in dreamland after a superb seven months for Everton.
And he says he was amazed to discover he was nominated as young player of the year in the EPL.
“I was at home and my dad phoned to tell me to look on the PFA website,” says Coleman in an interview with the Liverpool Echo.
“I was delighted. The first thing I did was ring my brother and I couldn’t wait to spill it.
“I wasn’t expecting it at the beginning of the year, it would never have been on my mind.
“It was just nice to be mentioned among those names. I was scrolling the web page looking at the other lads nominated with me and it was sinking in.”
Coleman has scored six goals from 35 appearances so far this season after being deployed on the right wing by Moyes, but he continues to take inspiration from Everton’s flying left-back.
“It’s unbelievable how many assists Baines has got,” he says.
“He’s the perfect role model if I go back to right back. A solid defender who is excellent going forward. He’s fit and fast and some of the crosses he puts in are inch perfect, he lands them flush on people’s heads.
“He has everything a full back needs and I look up to him. Watching him in training is an education, I learn from it all the time.”
Now Coleman is hoping players like Osman and Baines will carry their form into the late season’s acid test, as they make the short trip up the M62 to play Man Utd this weekend to take on a side most of his school friends supported.
“A lot of my mates at school were United fans. It was half United and half Liverpool,” says Coleman.
“Old Trafford has got a special excitement for me. The first fixture I look out for already is the derby but the United game is next. I was on the bench at Old Trafford last year and it was great there. The lights were on and the atmosphere was amazing.
“I’ve played at a few good stadiums since I broke into the team but United’s would be up there among the best. I’d love it if I got some game time against them.”
If Everton can become the first Toffees side to beat United at Old Trafford in 19 years, it will leave them eight games un beaten – but Coleman is as frustrated as anyone that this form has come too late for a top four challenge.
“It would have been better at the start of the season obviously, and then something we could keep going and winning games,” he says. “We wish it had come earlier, but it hasn’t and we just need to make sure it lasts until the season is over now.
“If we knew what to do to stop a slow start we’d have done it this summer. I can’t put my finger on it. It’s not like we go out and think we’ll have a slow start – the intention is to win every game. But we are determined to keep this momentum going and take it into the start of the next one.”