The 2011/12 Season - My Awards

Hello all

Now that the football season is effectively over, I've decided to give out my own personal awards....an idea sort of shamelessly stole from one of my favourite blogs.

Lincoln City Awards

Joe Anyon

Player of the Year - Joe Anyon - Easily the best player at the football club during the last season, there's not even a debate. It's a shame that our money troubles have forced us into not offering him a new contract and one club is about to get themselves a very good goalkeeper. Without Joe we would have been relegated.

Other noteable mentions in this category - Richard Hinds, Sam Smith and Danny Lloyd.

Worst Player of the Year - Ali Fuseini - Fuseini came to us in January 2011 with a good reputation having being heavily involved with Millwall in recent years. One year later and his good performances numbered one, he even stormed off at Gainsborough in a pre-season friend after getting tackled one too many times for his liking. Complete waste of time.

Other noteable mentions in this category - Rob Williams, Luke Medley, Niall Rodney, Gavin McCallum and Paul Robson

Most Over-Rated Player - John Nutter - John Nutter was liked by a lot of fans but his distribution was shocking, his marking was worse and he was regularly caught out of position.

Pointless Player of the Year - Adam Smith - Who? I hear you ask. Exactly. We loaned this young goalkeeper in from Leicester and he didn't play one single moment of football for the club. It was no surprise that Leicester recalled him because it was a waste of time him being here.

Other noteable mentions in this category - Louis Almond, Jason Beardsley, Jean Arnaud, Curtis Thompson and Matthew Pearson.

Best Performance - Ebbsfleet 2 Lincoln City 3 - I make no exaggeration by saying we could have scored ten goals that day. We were awesome. The amount of times we forced open Ebbsfleet's defence was ridiculous and we deserved a victory that was far bigger than the one goal that we eventually did win by.

Other noteable mentions in this category - Alfreton 1 Lincoln City 3 and Lincoln City 5 Darlington 0

Worst Performance - Carshalton Athletic 3 Lincoln City 1 - A dark night to be a Lincoln fan, a very dark night. A strong Lincoln side lost comfortably to a side from several divisions below and only a last minute goal gave the Imps minor dignity.

Other noteable mentions in this category - Too many individual ones to mention but the ones that come to mind include Tamworth 4 Lincoln 0, Lincoln 0 Alfreton 1 and Lincoln 0 Hayes and Yeading 1

Worst Moment to be a Lincoln City fan - Lincoln City Banter and Adam Watts - A few hours after Lincoln were eliminated from the FA Cup in the qualifying rounds by Alfreton Town, one fan decided to post a link to Adam Watts' Facebook profile and encouraging people to send him a load of abuse for the mistake (key word) that lead to Alfreton's winner. It just shows how far we've fallen when one of our fans thinks it's appropriate to actually promote abuse towards a player.

English Football in General

Player of the Year - Vincent Kompany (Manchester City) - Kompany was arguably the key player in Manchester City's title win. A rock at the back and a presence going forward, few could match Kompany's ability on the pitch and Manchester City were not the same side when he was not in the squad. In my opinion no-one else comes close to him this season.

Other mentions in this category - Papiss Cisse (Newcastle United), Emmanual Adebayor (Tottenham Hotspur), Robin Van Persie (Arsenal) and Joe Hart (Manchester City)

Young Player of the Year - Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea) - A player who I think will become really big in the next few years. He could score, he set up others and had Chelsea played him throughout the entire season then I highly doubt that they would have struggled.

Manager of the Year - Paul Lambert (Norwich City) - Lambert has done a fantastic job at Norwich. They are my third team after Lincoln and Manchester United, and I am delighted with what he has done with them. Although they got a few spankings throughout the season, Norwich provided stiff opposition for many teams and Lambert got them playing some great football.

Best Game - Manchester United 8 Arsenal 2 - This was far closer than the scoreline would suggest but as a Manchester United fan, this game had to be the game of the season. It was entertaining, full of goals, every attack from both sides looked like it would result in a goal. It was a brilliant game.

Other mentions in this category - Chelsea 3 Arsenal 5 and Manchester City 3 Tottenham Hotspur 2

Turning Point of the Season - Manchester United 4 Everton 4 - 4-2 up with five minutes to play, United were home and dry. They were going to maintain their gap of five points over Manchester City with just a handful of games to play. All of a sudden Everton score two quickfire goals and it's 4-4 and suddenly United are only 3 points clear. Three games later and Manchester City were champions.

Other mentions in this category - Harry Redknapp getting linked to the England job.

Steve Kean

Worst Fans - Blackburn Rovers - Not a doubt in my mind about this one. The way they treated Steve Kean was nothing short of disgusting and they got exactly what they deserved, relegation.

Other mentions in this category - Aston Villa

Biggest Mistake of the Season - Wolverhampton Wanderers hiring Terry Connor - The last thing you need in a relegation battle is a manager with no experience, and that's exactly what Wolverhampton Wanderers did when they appointed Terry Connor as replacement for Mick McCarthy. Would they have gone down otherwise? Maybe, but their record after he was appointed tells it's own story.

Other mentions in this category - Sir Alex Ferguson's decision to play 4-5-1 in a vital game at Manchester ity.

Best Individual Team Performance - Chelsea at Barcelona in the Champions League Semi Final - I hate Barcelona. I think they are egotistical beyond believe and their fans just seemed to think that getting through to the Champions League Final was a given, so when Chelsea defended brilliantly over the two legs and won, it was a brilliant moment for me. It felt wrong wanting Chelsea to win and cheering when Torres scored in the final moments, but it also felt so right as well.

Other mentions in this category - Manchester City's 6-1 win at Manchester United and Manchester United's 8-2 win over Arsenal

Goal of the Season - Papiss Cisse vs Chelsea - I can't get enough of this goal. Simply stunning and the reason I've chosen this over Peter Crouch's goal against Chelsea is because I feel that Crouch's is more easily replicatable than Cisse's. I've seen plenty of Crouch's but none like Cisse's.

My Premiership XI 2011/12 Season

GK - Joe Hart (Manchester City)
DEF - Leighton Baines (Everton)
DEF - Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea)
DEF - Vincent Kompany (Manchester City)
DEF - Benoit Assou-Ekotto (Tottenham Hotspur)
MID - Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur)
MID - Rafael Van Der Vaart (Tottenham Hotspur)
MID - Hatem Ben Arfa (Newcastle United)
MID - Ashley Young (Manchester United)
FW - Papiss Cisse (Newcastle United)
FW - Robin Van Persie (Arsenal)