Glenavon announce new long-term deal for star who has been 'central to everything good'

The 23-year-old arrived from Newry City during the summer and has undoubtedly been one of the Lurgan Blues’ standout performers throughout the season so far, making 20 Premiership appearances while chipping in with two goals.

Former Portadown star McKeown has also been entrusted with captaincy since Paddy McLaughlin was appointed new Glenavon manager in November, donning the skipper’s armband for his opening six league matches.

They’ve enjoyed an upswing in form over recent weeks, sealing wins against Crusaders, Portadown and Ballymena United while securing a dramatic point at home to Coleraine as they look to climb clear of any potential relegation threat – across the last five matches played by each top-flight team, only Linfield (13) and Glentoran (11) have picked up more points than Glenavon (10).

Perhaps most pleasing for McLaughlin will be the fact that in the same time period, no team has scored more goals (10) than the Lurgan Blues – they’d only netted 11 in 17 matches prior to his arrival.

While January is more about trying to add players into the squad – Glenavon have signed Sean Carlin and Tadhg Ryan so far – McLaughlin was also taken the opportunity to secure the services of his star player.

“Since Paddy was appointed Manager, Barney has been central to everything good both on and off the pitch,” coach Colin Coates told the club’s website. “Barney has had a good season to date and has shown great leadership, leading by example on the pitch and we look forward to helping with his progress in the upcoming seasons.”

Speaking last month, former Irish League centre-back Coates, who made over 600 appearances throughout his own distinguished playing career before joining McLaughlin’s backroom staff, praised the impact McKeown has had since taking on extra responsibility.

"Barney has been excellent since we've came in,” he told the club’s media channel. “I played in the league earlier this season and read everything about it and knew Barney had been doing well prior to us coming in.

"We're trying to implement how we want our centre-halves to play and giving him bits I've learned over the years, but his level of performance has been excellent.

"We thought it would be good to give him the captain's armband when we came in...he's still a young player but we wanted to give him that added responsibility.

"We have the likes of Niall Quinn, Mark Haughey, Rhys Marshall, Peter Campbell - these are all players that are leaders within the team but we know whether they are captain or not they'll give us the same levels of leadership.

"We've put that bit extra on Barney because he has earned it this season."