End Of Season Awards

Posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2014

Almost 100 attended the fully sold out End of Season Awards Dinner at Ainslie Park on Friday night. The event was a superb opportunity to get players and coaches from all the mens section as well as members of the board, sponsors, former players and supporters together and celebrate the end of another successful season.

The evening kicked up with a couple of Hall of Fame additions. Firstly existing Hall of Fame member Colin Hutchison welcomed Jimmy Dunnett. Jimmy, who currently resides in Canada was not able to attend the event, however Hutch was able to give a highlight of a number of the many achievements Jimmy obtained in both his personal life and with his long time with Spartans.

Next another existing Hall member, Doug Cowie, stood up to welcome Danny Costello to the Hall of Fame. Danny is still a regular at Ainslie Park and he entertained the crowd with stories of what Spartans was like when he was with the club, first as a player and then a manager.

We now have 6 people in the Spartans Hall of Fame and will be building a dedicated section to it on the website over the summer. We will be sure to let you know when we launch it.

The awards were then presented as follows:

Supporters Player of the Year
Cameron Hobbs presented the Supporters Award which had more votes this year than ever before. Keith McLeod was announced the winner with over 30% of the vote.

Volunteer of the Year
Chairman Craig Graham was next up as he presented the Volunteer of the Year award to Brian Garrity. Brian is at Ainslie Park almost every single day of the week as he spends time helping the Lowland League side as well as spending a huge amount of hours every week coaching and support actives the Academy does in the community.

Saturday Amateurs
Manager Andy Enwood stood up to talk for the last time as he has stepped down from his position. While the Ammies didn’t achieve what they wanted in the league he said how much he had enjoyed his time at the club. He was also honoured to present his brother Steven Enwood with the Players Player of the Year award and long serving defender Ross Hutchison was award the Player of the Year award.

Under 19s
Manager Les Atkinson was unable to attend, so Chairman Craig Graham took the stage again. Blair Atkinson won the top goal scorer award, Scott McRory-Irvine picked up Player of the Year and a very surprised Blair Carswell collected the Players Player of the Year award.

East of Scotland
Alex Cunningham was next up, awarding top goal scorer and Players Player of the Year to Davey Stewart, the midfielder having a superb season resulting in him getting called up for the East of Scotland select squad and also playing for the Lowland League side. Iain “Hammy” Ballantyne picked up the Player of the Year award. He too had an excellent in year in what was his first season with Spartans. Hammy was also selected for the East of Scotland select squad and featured for the Lowland League side.

Lowland League
Dougie Samuel thanked a number of people, both on and off the park, taking time to thank the supporters too for coming along. First up Keith McLeod was given the Players Player of the Year. Sammy highlighted his scoring achievements, equalling an 85 year old british record, but also highlighted the fact he didn’t want the coverage that came with it, preferring to focus on getting the results on the park as a team.

Mark Whatley was award the Player of the Year award. Mark had a huge role in our success this season and has been attracting attention from sides in the SPFL. His consistency and drive both on a game but and at training has been of huge importance.

Malt & Hops Player of the Season
Mark Whatley also picked up the Malt & Hops award for player most often named man of the match, again highlighting his consistent strong performances through the season.

Malt & Hops Goal of the Season
Before the meal, 6 goals were put forward for ‘Goal of the Season’. Those present were able to vote whilst they ate and at the end of the night Paul Dickson from our u19 side was declared the winner with his sensational 40 yard cup winning goal against Musselburgh.

Many thanks to all who came along and made it another great event. Also a huge thank you to Dave Bryce who was MC for the evening and did an excellent job!