Greenhill grabs top gong at End of Season Awards Night

Posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2016

The end of season Awards Night took place at the Spartans Academy on Saturday 30th May with players, officials and fans from across the Connections, Amateurs, Under 20s, East of Scotland and Lowland League teams attending a well received evening of celebration.

The event kicked off with Chairman Craig Graham delivering a welcome speech via the wonders of technology before announcing one of the new inductees into the Spartans Hall of Fame.  With almost 40 years of service and commitment to the Club, including 15 as a player before turning to coaching and then ‘spongeman’, esteemed Director John McCabe was met with a rousing round of applause when his name was announced.

Next up we heard from Grant Cunningham who spoke of the significant growth of the pan-disability Spartans Connections group.  Some of the lads were involved throughout the season with the East of Scotland side and contribute with their enthusiasm and time in volunteering around the Academy.

Director David Bryce introduced the Volunteer of the Year award and this was to be received by Club Media Manager Mark Brown for his efforts in attending games right across the Youths, Women and Men’s sides and producing match reports, twitter updates and photos too.

Aaron Murrell was the recipient of the bottle of fizz for the Goal of the Season.  His strike against Edinburgh City in the New Year Derby the pick of the kicks, in a surreal game that was certainly one that will be talked about for many years to come.

It was another youngster who picked up the Malt and Hops Player of the Season.  Jamie Dishington accruing the most individual match awards over the course of the campaign.

The Under 20s, who had a decent season finishing second and losing finalists in the Challenge Cup, had three awards to hand out.  Goalscorer of the season was Johnny Grotlin, Players’ Player of the Year Andrew Mair and the Coaches Player of the Year was won by Harry Girdwood.

Colin Tomassi’s League Cup winning East of Scotland side were next and it was Sean Stewart who collected the Players’ Player of the Year and he was followed by Brad Raiker as the Coaches Player of the Year.  The latter celebrated with a jug of water as he was running in the Edinburgh Marathon the following morning!

Finlay Murray invited Dean Horribine to collect the Supporters’ Player of the Year Award, before Manager Douglas Samuel made it a double for Dean’s mantelpiece by handing over the Players’ Player trophy.

Finally, the big one.  Sammy spoke of the commitment, skill and dedication of the winner of the Coaches Player of the Year.  There was rapturous applause around the Robertson Suite as David Greenhill scooped the top award.

This left just about enough time to catch the penalty kicks in the Champions League Final and for a couple of isotonic lagers to be consumed.

See you all for pre-season, folks!