Central defender Dara O’Shea admitted he hadn’t expected to be named the Town Men’s Player of the Year having been handed his award at last night’s End-of-Season Dinner at Milsoms Kesgrave Hall with Sophie Peskett winning the women’s gong.
O’Shea joined the Blues from Burnley for £15 million in the summer and has made more Premier League starts than anyone else.
"I’m a bit taken aback by it, I wasn’t really expecting it,” the Irish international told TownTV. "It’s obviously lovely to receive the recognition for all the hard work we’ve put in this season.
"I’m really proud of everything we’ve done as a group this season and looking forward to next season now to see what we can do.
"So many lessons were learned this year that would take years and years to come by if we hadn’t been under those circumstances. It’s powerful what we’ve done this season and what we’ve learned.
"It’s such a young group, so little experience in the Premier League, so to compete, which I think we’ve done quite well, maybe results haven’t shown that, but I think from inside the group and what you know, we’ve competed really well this season and it’s something that we’ve all got to be proud of but also learn from and move on forward.”
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Forward Peskett, who had previously been named the FAWNL Southern Premier Division Player of the Year having also claimed the Golden Boot for netting 23 times, said: "Really honoured to have received these two awards. Obviously, with the season we’ve had to have contributed to that is amazing.
"I’ve got to give credit to every single player that played any minutes at all this year, all of them deserve all the credit and love.”