PICK YOUR PRIZE GUYS
THE NLP today proudly launches our Virtual National Game Awards to recognise the efforts of players, managers and clubs during the extraordinary 2019-20 season.
Although the NonLeague game at Steps 3-7 was cut short, with the two National League tiers yet to be decided, our annual prize-giving will still take place – but online!
We’ve got 15 awards to dish out and we need your votes.
FROM BARROW to Jersey – and 470 miles in between – the 201920 campaign will live in the memory for a whole host of reasons.
Ian Evatt’s Bluebirds have led the way at the top of Non-League, while new boys Jersey Bulls won every game in their first season at Step 6.
In the FA Cup, Maldon & Tiptree shocked Leyton Orient, while Step 4 Halesowen Town reached the semi-final of the Buildbase FA Trophy where they were set to take on Step 2 side Concord Rangers for a place at Wembley.
But, of course, the season will be remembered for the global coronavirus pandemic that stopped football, along with the rest of the world, in its tracks. It also meant our annual National Game Awards in May had to be cancelled.
But we didn’t want that to stop us recognising the efforts made in 2019-20, the stories managers, players and clubs have been writing before everything was curtailed.
So this week we are proud to launch our ‘Virtual’ National Game Awards. They will take on a slightly different format to usual but, as always, we need our loyal readers to decide where the gongs deserve to go.
This year, we are also dishing out awards at each level, with usual favourites of Cup Run of the Year and Manager of the Year.
Unfortunately in this period, with The NLP team working from home, we are unable to accept postal votes so voting will be online only.
Voting is now open and will run until Thursday, June 11. You don’t need to vote in every category. The winners will then be contacted and revealed in The NLP on Sunday, June 21.
So should Evatt scoop the Manager prize? Or does Simon Weaver deserve to be recognised for his efforts at Harrogate Town – not to mention Jim Gannon at Stockport County and Woking’s Alan Dowson in their clubs’ first seasons back at Step 1?
Is goalscoring supreme Adam Marriott your National League North Player of the Year? Or how about Tunde Owolabi at FC United for the Northern Premier League star? Let us know.