Town youngster Monty Patterson is amongst the nominees for a gong at New Zealand’s Halberg Awards.

The Halberg Awards celebrate sporting achievements by teams and athletes from New Zealand during the previous year.

Patterson, 20, is nominated in the Emerging Talent category, which is “designed to assist in a young athletes’ quest to become an Olympic, Paralympic and/or world champions and hopefully one day [win] the Halberg Award”.

The midfielder or striker is up against Dylan Schmidt (trampoline), Finn Bilous (snow sports), George Gautrey (yachting), Nick Johnson (yachting), Jason Matthews (baseball), Hamish McLean (para-swimming), Maynard Peel (cycling BMX) and Campbell Stewart (cycling).

Patterson made his full international debut for the All Whites at the OFC Nations Cup last summer as New Zealand won the tournament. He subsequently scored his first and so far only international goal in a friendly in the US and has now won nine caps.

Previously with Auckland-based side Eastern Suburbs, Patterson signed his first professional contract with the Blues last season, a one-year deal with an option for a further season. He is yet to make his Town debut but recently spent two months on loan at Braintree.

The nominations will now be assessed by the judges - former athletes, coaches and sports journalists - and shortlisted into finalists.

The 54th staging of the Halberg Awards will be on Thursday 9th February at the Vector Arena in Auckland.

Photo: TWTD

martleshamitfc added 23:29 - Jan 28 This lad is a NZ International but does not get a look in to the 1st team squad - any one know why? especially as we are short of strikers!
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Woodbridgian added 06:56 - Jan 29 I really struggle to understand why given our current lack of options up front and goals this lad doesn't at least get as far as the bench. He can't be any worse than Leon Best ? ?
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svendust added 08:31 - Jan 29 Mick has shown that if youngsters are good enough and show the right attitude they do get a chance. Makes you wonder why Patterson isn't getting a look in but seems to be very popular in NZ. Maybe the standard of NZ footballers is just very low?
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MattinLondon added 09:45 - Jan 29 @svendust That may well be the case but if a youngster had played exactly the same as the majority of games as Chambers, Skuse, Douglas, Knudsen I wonder if they would still be at the club.
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Wickets added 10:29 - Jan 29 9 international cap's but can't get a kick for Mick. Does make one wonder why?
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wokingblue added 11:13 - Jan 29 He doesn't get a start for the first team because Mick thinks he's not ready or not good enough. He sees the players every day in training and knows them far better than us. Simple.
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Wickets added 13:12 - Jan 29 Well you may be right wokingblue and i seem to remember Mick saying as much. But still seems odd to me that someone is deemed good enough tp play 9 times for his country and not to even get the odd 10 minutes for us.
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Woodbridgian added 20:33 - Jan 29 Woking Blue your comment pre-supposes McCarthy knows what he's doing ....Big call that !
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JohnWarksTash added 22:13 - Jan 29 Just out of interest how many goals did this great white hope bang in for Braintree?
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Wickets added 11:01 - Jan 30 No idea how many he scored for Braintree, although i remember he did score an international goal, it's quite possible he will never score a goal for us. I do know that he wont score if he never plays but if you don't try 'em you'll never know!
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