It has been quite the month for St Albans Saints, progressing to the Westfield FFA Cup Round of 16 while maintaining its unbeaten streak to sit fourth in NPL1. 

Over Rounds 17-21, the Saints have picked up four wins out of five, with only North Geelong Warriors bettering that tally with a perfect record of its own.

The star of the month for the club has been Brodie Paterson, with the attacking midfielder scoring  three times in the period while impressing reporters on every outing.

He was voted as the man of the match on three occasions, while coming second in the remaining two fixtures, blowing away the rest of the competition to win the Winning Edge Presentations NPL1 Player of the Month award. 

Paterson spoke to FFV’s Tomasz Ng about winning the award, working with his dad and Steve Laurie, as well as how he is trying his best to get his career back on track. 

TN: Congratulations Brodie, how happy are you to have been voted as the NPL1 Player of the Month? 

BP: I’m delighted. My old man (Toby Paterson) and his assistant Stevie Laurie have played a big part in me this season. They got me back fit in pre-season and I’m back playing good football. I’m really enjoying my football at St Albans. 

TN: What is it like to work with your dad and Steve? 

BP: It’s great. He and Steve put a lot of work into and they’ve believed in me since the pre-season. I put in a lot of hard work during the pre-season and they have me back playing. I’m actually probably playing my best football for a while and enjoying it, really enjoying it.

TN: So what has been the real secret to your turnaround in form? 

BP: Steve has played the most important part in me playing to my potential and getting back fit. He’s the one who is making me enjoy my football, probably the most I’ve enjoyed it so far so all thanks to Steve Laurie. 

I’ve just been working hard, doing training on my own as well, obviously listening to what my old man and Steve tells me. I’m coming along and enjoying it. 

TN: Which game has been your best this season?

BP: Probably against Avondale because I scored one of the best goals I’ve ever scored actually. I’m stoked with that. I’ve played a couple of decent games, I’m just trying to be consistent and play well every game.

We got off to a bit of a shaky start but its starting to come along now and I’ve been doing pretty well for the majority of the season.

TN: And the team itself is having a pretty good season too, making the next stage in the Westfield FFA Cup while maintaining a promotion push. How has the whole journey been?

BP: Yeah we’ve got a good team at St Albans. As I said my dad and Steve Laurie have put a lot of hard work in building a side pre-season, we’ve got Ryan McGuffie, an ex-pro, Barry Devlin and Ross Harvey. We got off to a bit of a bad start but we’re coming good now and we haven’t lost in I think it’s 11 games now.

We went up to Parramatta (for the FFA Cup) and it was great up there. The boys did well and got a great result. We’re now looking forward to the draw on Friday. I don’t think it will cause much problem in the league, we’re just enjoying it. It’s good that we’ve got that far. I think its the furthest the club has ever got to in its history so it’s a good achievement so far already. 

TN: Do you see North Geelong Warriors your main promotion rival now?

BP: At the moment we do yes. We’re playing them in a couple of weeks, it should be a good game. It’s obviously kind of close between us two. Our team’s changed since we played them last so it should be good. The boys are definitely up for it and looking forward to it. 

TN: What sort of goals did you set yourself for this year, and what are your aspirations for the future?

BP: My main goal for myself is I’ve been working back on a building site for two years now and my goal is to get back to playing full-time football. I’ll have to keep working hard and football’s a funny game, opportunities come along. Hopefully somebody takes a liking to me and I might get a chance to go back to playing full time again.

I was at the AIS and Melbourne Heart Youth for a few years then I got a bit of a bad injury and I’m slowly just getting back into it and that’s my main goal for myself, to hopefully get a crack in the A-League.

The Winning Edge Presentations NPL1 Player of the Month is voted for by the match reporters, in the 3-2-1 format. 

Image credit: Mark Avelino