The games are fast running out and it is time for us to turn our attention towards the Supporters Club’s Player of the Year awards. It is our intention this time to hold an ‘awards party’ in the Clubhouse after our final home game of the season. We hope to have a band for the evening to follow on straight after the trophies have been presented to the players who will then be free to stay for a while or get off home to their families.
The evening will be FREE to Supporters Club members but because of the limited capacity in the Clubhouse it will be a ‘ticket-only’ affair with entry on a first to apply basis. More details will be made avaialable in the next couple of programmes and on our website in due course. We should have voting slips available at the next two home games and this time supporters will only need to make two choices – these being for the Player of the Year of course and also for the Goal of the Season. As we have reported previously the Committee has been deciding on a Rovers’ goal of the month at each of our monthly committee meetings and we should have a final list of these for fans to choose the best goal. All the nominated goals will be made available to view on the website and we also hope to get Screen Soccer to show them all after their match highlights on the evening itself.
The emergence of Rovers’ highly successful Development Squad has taken all the Club’s youngsters under its wing so we are asking the Manager, Chris Hargreaves, to choose the Young Player of the Year just as Head of Academy, Jonny Henderson, does for the Youth Team POTY. The Committee will decide on our Clubman of the Year at our next meeting.
One final word on the senior player, the old trophy has now been going for no less than 37 seasons and is completely full of winners’ plates so needs to be replaced. We thought it was an excellent opportunity to have a new shield, dedicated to our former Chairman and Supporters Club member, Geoff Dunford, and we are hoping that Geaff’s widow, Sharon, will do us the great honour of presenting it to the very first winner on April 28th. Watch this space!