Supporters Player of The Season

At the annual awards ceremony it fell to me to give this award. It was a very up and down season for Wingate & Finchley and although we finished in 13th position on 59 points – the -16 goal difference tells the story of how bad some of the defeats were. The worst of all from a fans point of view was the 0-5 drubbing at home by local rivals Hendon. Equally, none of the fans will forget the glorious fightback from 0-3 down against East Thurrock to achieve a notable draw when down to 10 men.

In a season with so many ups and downs and with several serious candidates for the award, it is perhaps not surprising that the fans went for someone who is consistent – in fact many a fellow fan has commented that ‘you know exactly what you’re going to get’ with this player. As I said in my speech – he’s not the quickest, but he holds the ball up well. He always puts his effort in and doesn’t give up. He likes to walk through defenders rather than going around them. His lack of pace is more than compensated for by his deft touches which have often set up chances for other players. The sight of him lolloping into the area with his hair flopping around and his tongue hanging out led me to christen him ‘The Dulux Dog’ earlier in the season. But the fans often mis-chant his name from the terraces as David Lairdinho in respect of his obvious ball skills – he is, of course…

David LairdCongratulations Lairdy 🙂
Match photos by myself – thanks to Eliot Katz for photographing me presenting the award.