Player of the Year Awards

By: Nick Osborne
Date: 23/07/2000

Player of the Year Awards

News From 9th May 2000

The Player of the Year awards night at the Winter Gardens was a good night to be had. Plenty of fans turned up to greet their heroes in what was a good turn out by the fans. Mark Lever was the chief recipient, picking up 4 awards.

The evening started off with some entertainment from local talent.They where all solo singers,mostly between about 16 & 20 years old. And quite good they where too.

Awards time:
This started about 9-00pm and went rather well.Tim Harvey was the compere for the night.They started of with awards for all the youngsters,which where presented by Cockers.They then moved on to other people's awards such as the handicapped supporters and supporters club,and of course the GTISC awards.These went to Stacey Coldicott and Danny Butterfield.They where very happy to receive awards from an 'international' supporters club.Pictures of which will appear on the fishy at a later date.

Dave Smith was very grateful that we sponsor him,and ask's,'will we be doing it next season'.I told him we was(hope that's right) and he says its nice to be sponsored by 'real fans' as opposed to the corporate guys who they never really get to meet.At least with the fans,it actually means some thing to them.He also said 'thank you very much for your support,to which i replied,on behalf of GTISC,that it was a pleasure to be your sponsor and thanks for taking the time to talk to us(as it was a busy night). Talking about him signing a new contract,he says he was pleased to sign on again.He is enjoying his football at GTFC and hopes to provide us with entertaining football next season.He likes it here and wants to play.Good for him I say.

The feeling on the night was one of great admiration for Mark Lever.He got by far the biggest cheers when he went on stage to collect his awards.Chants of Leeever,Leeever.Leeever could probably be heard all over Cleethorpes,as could the 20 verses of 'sign him up,sign him up, sign him up,siiiigggnnnnn him up.

Mark says he would love to stay at Grimsby,the people are good and he loves the club,I've been here for years now and would like to finish my playing career with town.The clubs been good to me over the years and me for them,so its just a question of sorting out a new contract.He hopes he can,lets wait and see.

It was a good night all round BUT,well there's always a but,isn't there? My complaints for the night where the fact that AB himself didn't address the fans.I thought he should have,even if it was only to say thanks for your support.He left the venue about 30 minutes after the awards finished.I had no chance of talking to him so couldn't ask him anything.Having said that,Groves,Livvo,Macca and Donovan left straight away.They never stopped at all.It is my view that they should have stopped and talked to the fans.It is for one night of the year,when all the fans who turn up,like to talk to the players.Not too much to ask is it?And where was Galli? I never saw him all night.

The awards went like this:

Supporters Player of the year:Mark Lever
Appelby family lounge:Mark Lever
Handicapped supporters:Mark Lever
GET:Mark Lever

Football in the community:Stacey Coldicott
GTISC:Stacey Coldicott
Official site:Stacey Coldicott

Young player of the year:Danny Butterfield
GTISC young player:Danny Butterfield
He won 2 others but I couldn't hear cos of the noise

Danny Coyne won 2 awards for his impressive debut season.

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