Holbeach United celebrated the many positives from the curtailed 2019/20 season with an online awards ceremony last week.
Former manager Danny Hussey helped put on the ceremony to mark the end of the season and his era in charge before Phil Barnes took over.
And he named Tom Smith as his Manager’s Player of the Season.
“At the start of the season I don’t think he believed he’d get as many games as he should have believed.
“With Adam Jackson in centre mid-field he came in at left back.
“He took his chance and the main thing is he was consistent over 30 games. He wasn’t always 10 out of 10 but he was always at least seven out of 10.
“I think he really enjoyed this season too.
“That was important. I got rid of a lot of stale players that I thought weren’t going to be good for the dressing room and brought in players that still had quality but would enjoy the banter and that is part of the Holbeach mentality.”
Jonno Fairweather was the Players’ Player and was also the joint winner of the Supporters’ Player of the Year award alongside Adam Jackson.
Liam Adams claimed the Chairman/Sponsors’ Player of the Year award while Jonny Lockie being the top goal scorer for the season ensured that he was also named Young Player of the Year.
Hussey was delighted for the players seeing recognition.
“We wanted to have a good mix of bringing young players through alongside established players,” he continued. “There’s some really good young players in there alongside the likes of Tom and Jacko. Every week they went out on the pitch to do their jobs.”
When the season was brought to a premature end, the Tigers were fifth in the league and set for a cup final.
“I’m confident we’d have got third place,” said Hussey. “All the sides around us still had to play each other.
“I don’t think we could have caught Shepshed and probably Loughborough University or Quorn would have got second, the University being the best side we played right at the start of the season.
“With that we also had the cup final to look forward to.
“I do feel hard done by but as I’ve said all along it was the right decision to null and void the season and we went out on a high with the win over Lutterworth.
“There are amazing volunteers at Holbeach, many of whom are vulnerable and if just one of them had caught the virus as a result of us still playing I and the players would have been devastated.”
A host of young talents were among those recognised for their performances for Holbeach United’s development sides at the club’s recent awards ceremony held online.
For Holbeach United’s Reserves, who were mid-table in the Chromasport Peterborough and District League Premier Division, top scorer Tom Coote was the Manager’s Player of the year with Brad Waters and Alex Richardson sharing their fellow Players’ Player award.
Josh Balding claimed the chairman/sponsors’ prize and Jordan Elston took home both the Supporters’ Player and Young Player of the Year awards.
Dean Elston was title chasing Holbeach United Sports’ Manager’s Player of the Year.
The side were second in Division Three, two points behind leaders Ramsey but with a game in hand when the season was brought to a premature end.
Harvey Wirkowski was the Players’ Player, Charlie Parkes Chairman/Sponsors’ Player and Jack Forster the Supporters’ Player of the Year.
Josh Ling top scored for the side while James Clark was the Young Player of the Year.
Clark was also the Manager’s Player of the Year for Holbeach United U18s side.
After top scoring for the side during the season, Jordan Elston added to his accolades by picking up their Players’ Player trophy.
He also shared the title of Supporters’ Player of the Year alongside Will Barnes.
Wirkowski was named the U18s’ team Chairman/Sponsors’ Player of the Year.
