No regrets nor growing pains for Shelbourne's fast-maturing Kameron Ledwidge

Shelbourne defender Kameron Ledwidge would be forgiven for feeling a bit like Lemuel Gulliver, washing up on the shoreline of this new League of Ireland season.

And it's nothing to do with his stature. It's more a case that at just 23, he may as well be an elder statesman in a Lilliputian landscape populated by an ever-growing array of 16 and 17-year-old starlets.

Tottenham-bound St Pat's player Mason Melia and Shamrock Rovers forward Michael Noonan have led that charge but others like another Hoop in Victor Ozhianvuna, Cork City's Cathal O'Sullivan and Dundalk's Vinnie Leonard are just three of those who have already left their imprint across the two divisions in recent months.

Ledwidge came into 2025 firmly established in a Shels back four that proved the bedrock beneath last season's dramatic league title triumph.

And it's the former Republic of Ireland Under-21 international's growing maturity that his tough task master of a manager Damien Duff cited when club and player agreed a new deal running until November 2026 last summer.

"Just growing up really," Ledwidge tells RTÉ Sport as he reflects on the factors behind that coming-of-age ahead of tonight's blockbuster clash with Shamrock Rovers at Tolka Park.

Kameron Ledwidge believes he has matured as a person and a player at Shelbourne, and is impressed with how his side's strikers have started the season. #rtesport pic.twitter.com/BLkXVYdPx5

"With age and being around older people and older lads in the changing room, it makes you mature more.

"I think I was kind of that kid coming back from Southampton. In England, under-23s football or under-18s football is different to first-team. When you're around older people, you learn a lot more and the manager has been a big help with