St Patrick's Athletic manager Pat Dolan said last night that he was "deeply honoured" to have been named as the Opel/Soccer Writers' Association of Ireland Personality of the Year.

The 29-year-old, who led his club to the league title only 18 months after taking over team affairs at Richmond Park, said he was thrilled to receive the annual award, which was presented to him at the Conrad Hotel in Dublin.

Dolan held off competition from rival manager Damien Richardson and players Pat Scully and Stephen Geoghegan, as well as his own player, Colin Hawkins, to lift the prize. But he insisted that it was an honour that belonged equally to the many other people that have contributed to the club's success over that past season.

"Individual awards are certainly nice, but I'd prefer to see this as recognition of the new mentality that we've brought to the National League.

"The rest of the management team have contributed to that as well as the players and the directors," he said, "and I'd particularly like to dedicate this to the chairman, Tim O'Flaherty, who has been a tremendous force within the club and a great help to me since I took over from Brian Kerr."

Dolan's predecessor, Brian Kerr, was presented with a Special Merit Award by the association last night, recognition for the tremendous success he has achieved with the Irish Under-16, 18 and 20 teams since his appointment. Kerr was previously named as the Philips Manager of the Year for 1997 after the phenomenal success of Malaysia last summer.

Manchester United will make one final bid to sign Cameroon international Marc-Vivien Foe from Lens. The French champions have rejected one offer from United, believed to be worth £3 million, for Foe, but sources in France claim Lens may be prepared to sell their highly-rated defensive midfielder for £5 million.