Defender Sean Gannon has capped off a brilliant May for Dundalk by winning the SSE Airtricity/SWAI Player of the Month award.

It is the first time that the prize has been won by Gannon who has been one of the Premier Division’s most reliable players over the last few years.

The Lilywhites are back at the top of the division after a brilliant run of form, particularly last month, when they went on an unbeaten run in the division with five wins and a draw.

Gannon was key to that run on the right side of the Dundalk defence which kept an impressive four clean sheets in those matches.

"There are so many good players in the league," said Gannon picking up his award. "The competition is always very high, so I’m just delighted to win one.

“It could have gone to any one of the lads who were nominated as they all had brilliant months. So I’m happy with the result."

Gannon beat off some stiff competition to come first ahead of Danny Mandroiu of Bohemians in second and Shamrock Rovers full-back Trevor Clarke, who was third.

"I’m happy with how I'm playing," he added. "One thing that has been evident this year is that our squad is very strong. No matter who’s playing, the pressure is on to perform because if you’re not then someone will be in ahead of you.

"That competition has been healthy, and it has spurred a lot of us on to lift our game again.

"We’ve no game this week so that gives us a chance to work on things as a team, then we have the break next week before a big game against Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght."

The league may be on a break but Tuesday is one of the biggest days of the season for four clubs who will find out which teams they will face in Europe.

Gannon and co. are seeded in Group 3 of the Champions League draw, which begins at 12 pm Irish time, and will face one of five unseeded teams: Linfield, Piast Gliwice (Poland), Valur Reykjavik (Iceland), HB Torshavn (Faroe Islands) or Riga (Latvia).

Cork City, Shamrock Rovers, St Patrick's Athletic are all in the draw for the preliminary round of the Europa League which starts at 2:30 pm.