Kenny: Patrick Joseph (Paddy)

2012-2014 (Leeds Player Details) (Player Details)

Goalkeeper

Born: Halifax: 17-05-1978

Debut: v Shrewsbury Town (h): 11-08-2012

6’ 14st 1lb (2012)

Halifax-born Kenny started his footballing career with local amateur club Ovenden West Riding FC of the West Riding Amateur League Premier Division, which they won in 1996-97. He joined Bradford Park Avenue, who were in the Northern Premier League in August 1997. He was very highly rated by Manager Trevor Storton and soon became his regular keeper and was ever-present in his first season of 1997-98, making a total of fifty-five starts, which included Forty-two games in the League and one in the F.A. Cup and two in the Football League Trophy as Avenue came ninth in the League. His form attracted the attention of several clubs and he had trials with Birmingham City, Bradford City and Bury before the Gigg Lane side paid £10,000 to sign him on 1st September 1998. He was signed to be the deputy and future replacement for Dean Kiely, and at first had to be content with playing second fiddle. But, after he had been out of action due to injury, Manager Neil Warnock loaned him out to Whitby Town on 5th March 1999, to get first team experience rather than sit on the bench or play in the Reserves at Gigg Lane. He made his debut for Whitby Town eight days later as they won 1-0 at Lancaster City in the Unibond Premier League. He played eight games in all for the Turnbull Ground club the last being in a 1-1 draw at Accrington Stanley on 1st May 1999 before returning to Gigg Lane. In July 1999 Bury sold Dean Kiely to Charlton Athletic for more than £1 million and this gave Kenny his chance to show his capabilities at Football League level. He made his League debut on 7th August 1999 in a 2-1 home win over Gillingham and soon became the recognised keeper and was ever-present in that 1999-2000 season, he was also everpresent in 2000-01 and missed only five games in 2001-02. He was always popular at Gigg Lane while playing there, but after Neil Warnock had left to manage Sheffield United on 2nd December 1999, his former Manager, whose regular keeper at Bramall Lane, Simon Tracey, was injured, returned to Gigg Lane to take Kenny on a three months' loan on 16th July 2002. There was also an agreement in place that if at the end of the three months wished they could buy him for £45,000. There was much annoyance at Gigg Lane when he was allowed to leave at such a bargain basement price. He had started one hundred and thirty-three League games, seven F.A. Cup games, five games in the League Cup and five more in the Football League Trophy. In his loan period at Bramall Lane he had started twelve League and two League Cup games before he signed permanently for the Blades on 16th October 2002. He had initially made his debut at Bramall Lane on 10th August 2002 in a 1-2 defeat at Highfield Road against Coventry City. He carried on where he had left off, playing his first game as a permanent player on 19th October 2002 in a 4-2 away win at Brighton and Hove Albion, and went on to complete forty-eight League, four F.A. Cup and seven League Cup games in his first season at the Blades and was voted the supporters' "Player of the Year". It was a season which saw the club so close to success but in the end they finished with nothing to show for all their endeavours. They eliminated Leeds United in both the Cup competitions but they fell to Liverpool and Arsenal in the Semi-Finals of the F.A. and League Cups. But the biggest disappointment was in the League when the finished in third spot but after reaching the Millenium Stadium play-off final were disappointingly beaten 0-3 by Wolverhampton Wanderers and so remained in Division One for another year. 2003-04 was a disappointment both for Kenny and the club as on 26th August 2003 in a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park he and Dougie Freedman were in a collision in the twenty-ninth minute which saw the Palace striker taken off. Kenny soldiered on but did not return after half-time when it was found he had broken his leg. This saw him out of action until the Boxing Day clash with Coventry City at Highfield Road which United won by the only goal of the game. It meant that his appearances were limited to twenty-seven in the League and also that United did not make even the play-offs as they finished eighth. Kenny made forty League appearances but again the Blades could manage only eighth spot. He made his first appearances for the Republic of Ireland at the end of the season, when he was an eighty-first minute substititute for Shay Given in a 2-1 win over the Czech Republic at Lansdowne Road Dublin on 1st April 2004. Two months later on 3rd June 2004 he made his starting debut at the Valley, home of Charlton Athletic, in a 1-0 win over Jamaica. But in 2005-06 Kenny was an ever-present as Sheffield finished second and gained automatic promotion to the EPL. In the season he faced five penalty kicks and saved four of them, which helped in their push for promotion. He also added more caps to his collection as he established himself as the second Irish keeper, behind Shay Given. He gained his third cap when he was a seventy-first minute substitute for Shay Given in a 1-1 draw with Bulgaria in a friendly on 19th August 2004. He was then an unused substitute in four consecutive World Cup Qualifiers on 5th September 2004 in a 3-0 win at Lansdowne Road, four days later in a 1-1 draw with Switzerland at St Jakob Park in Basel, on 10th October 2004 in a 1-1 draw with France at Stade de France in Paris and four days later in a 2-0 win over the Faroe Islands at Lansdowne Road. He gained his fourth cap on 17th November 2004 in 1-0 win over Croatia in a friendly at Lansdowne Road, but he gave way to Shay Given in the seventy-seventh minute.He was unused on the bench in Tel Aviv as Ireland drew 1-1 with Israel on 27th March 2005 in a World Cup Qualifier and three days later he gained his fifth cap in a 1-0 friendly win over China at Lansdowne Road. He was then unused on the bench in five World Cup Qualifiers, a 2-2 draw at Lansdowne Road on 5th June 2005 with Israel, a 2-0 win over the Faroe Islands at Torsvollur four days later, a 0-1 loss to France at Lansdowne Road on 8th September 2005, a 1-0 win at the Neo GSP in Strovolos against Cyprus on 9th October 2005 and a 0-0 draw with Switzerland at Lansdowne Road four days later. He went on to complete his International caps when he gained his final two, in a friendly 0-4 loss to the Netherlands at Lansdowne Road on 17th August 2006 and his seventh and final cap in a European Championship Qualifier 5-2 win at the Neo GSP in Strovolos against Cyprus on 8th October 2006, before announcing his retirement from International competition. In the Premier League, Kenny and Sheffield United both gave a good account of themselves. Unfortunately the club eventually suffered relegation in their first season back in the top flight, after looking like avoiding it until the final day of the season. Facing Wigan Athletic at Bramall Lane they needed only a draw to be safe and send their opponents down, but as a fail safe, West Ham United also needed to win at Old Trafford to send them down should they not get a point from their final game. Wigan won 2-1 and West Ham won 1-0 to conspire to send the Blades down, as Wigan stayed up on the strength of having scored one goal more than United in the season. Kenny missed only four League games in the season and had several impressive displays as he did his best to save the club from relegation. Neil Warnock was sacked as Manager and Bryan Robson took over before giving way to Kevin Blackwell in February 2008. The Blades finished ninth in their first season back in the Championship in 2007-08, with Kenny missing just six games. 2008-09 was another near miss for Sheffield, as Kenny missed just two games as the Blades were just three points away from automatic promotion. They negotiated the play-off Semi-Finals with a 2-1 aggregate win over Preston North End but fell to fifth-placed Burnley by the only goal of the game at Wembley on 25th May 2009. There had, however, been problems for Kenny as he and the club had a disagreement regarding his contract. Manager Kevin Blackwell insisted the club were willing to negotiate a new deal, but after Kenny was late for training, he was dropped for the Boxing Day fixture at Wolverhampton Wanderers as well as the following fixture at home to Charlton Athletic, two days later as well as being placed on the transfer list. He signed a new contract after the play-off final at the end of the season. Soon after that it was reported that Kenny had failed a drug test after the previous season's Championship play-off semi final. He tested positive for ephedrine, a banned substance, believed to have been contained in a cough medicine he bought over the counter. Following an FA hearing in September 2009, he was banned from all professional football for nine months. Despite an unsuccessful appeal against his ban, the Blades still opted to agree a new contract extension with Kenny during his enforced absence from first team football. He started for the first time that season on the 24th April 2010, in a 2–0 win over Swansea City, and played a second game in a 3-0 win at Ipswich Town in the final game of the season on 1st May 2010. They were his only games that season and he had kept two clean sheets. After signing permanently for the Blades he had started two hundred and sixty-six League games, nineteen F.A. Cup games, thirteen League Cup games and six play-offs and two other games. Despite being offered a contract extension by the the Bramall Lane club, Kenny opted to sign a three-year contract on 6th June 2010 with former boss Neil Warnock's side Queens Park Rangers for £750,000, after Kenny had activated a clause in his contract, which allowed him to move if the buying club were prepared to pay Sheffield £750,000. He soon established himself as the club's first choice keeper, after Warnock had given him his chance in preference to Radek Cerny, making forty-four appearances as they carried all before them as runaway leaders of the Championship for just about the whole of the season and finished up lifting the trophy as champions and gaining promotion to the EPL at the end of the 2010-11 season. As well as his championship medal Kenny also won the club's "Players' player" and the Supporters' "Player of the Year" awards. In 2011-12 Kenny remained the first choice but he picked up a thigh muscle strain which caused him to miss the games fropm 26th November 2011 to 17th December 2011 and no sooner had he returned than he picked up another hip/thigh injury which kept him out until the New Year. He finished up missing just five League matches in the season. It was one of the close season's worst kept secrets that Neil Warnock, who was now the Leeds United Manager, wanted to bring him to Elland Road and so nobody was surprised when Mark Hughes, the new Queens Park Rangers' Manager signed Robert Green from West Ham United and Kenny moved to Leeds on 11th July 2012 for a fee thought to be in the vacinity of £500,000 and on a three year contract. He made his Leeds debut on 11th August 2012 in the League Cup at home to Shrewsbury Town and his League debut followed a week later at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers. He was an ever-present in League games in 2012-13. He remained first choice at Leeds until he was injured and Leeds brought in Jack Butland on loan to replace him on 22nd February 2014. This saw Butland as the regular first choice with Alex Cairns the unused substitute for the rest of that season. Even after regaining fitness he was not included in any Leeds first team squad. He was not included in the Leeds squad for the pre-season tour of Italy and when Stuart Taylor was signed on 30th June 2014 and Marco Silvestri just over a week later hje looked to be on the outer. This was confirmed when the Italian was given the number one jersey with Taylor as his deputy and Kenny was not even given a number. On 18th August 2014 he left the club by mutual agreement. He signed a short-term deal with Bolton Wanderers on 19th September 2014 as back-up for ex-Leeds keeper Andy Lonergan after first choice Adam Bogdan had been sidelined by injury. After being an unused substitute in eleven League and one League Cup game, two months later he was loaned to Oldham Athletic. He made his debut for them on 29th November 2014 in a 3-0 win at Rochdale, but on 20th December 2014 and he had to pick the ball out of the net seven times as the Latics went down 7-0 at M.K. Dons. He had started three League games and one in the F.A. Cup. However, his stay came to an end when his contract at Bolton expired on 19th January 2015. The following day he joined Ipswich Town for the rest of the season, but did not start a game, although he was the unused substitute in five League games.