Maidenhead United’s Award Winners Of Some Official And More

June 23, 2024 nbcsportz FOOTBALL 0

Maidenhead United’s award winners, Simone O’Brien, Tanya Davis-Hussain and Ed Jackson-Norris (middle three) with teammates and supporters at last night’s awards.

Maidenhead United and Slough Town were two of the big winners at the 2024 Berkshire Football Awards, staged at the Double Barrelled Brewery in Reading on Wednesday.

The popular event, which celebrates pretty much every aspect of the grassroots game from Sunday League Football to the National League, was again well attended by players, managers, photographers and content creators, and the Magpies took home four of the 18 awards on the evening.

Maidenhead United’s Women’s team were recognised after one of the most successful seasons in the club’s history – with manager Ed Jackson-Norris winning manager of the year (women’s game) and joint top scorer Simone O’Brien claiming the female player of the year award.

Tanya Davis-Hussain, who plays a key role for the women’s team – and is also treasurer for Maidenhead United Juniors – was named volunteer of the year, while Fin Ward won physio of the year.

Also connected to the club, former Advertiser reporter Shay Bottomley was nominated for Best Community Campaign for his Move Us or Lose Us campaign and petition to try and force the Royal Borough into a rethink over its decision to block the club’s stadium move to Braywick Park. He lost out to Caversham United’s 10 Years of Rainbow Laces & Sunday League Day campaign.

The event was compered by the Guardian Football Weekly Podcast regular, author of Up Pohnpei! and co-host of The Sweeper podcast, Paul Watson, while there was also music by the guitarist Chris Lambert and the brewery’s house band The Small Strings.

Slough Town were another of the evening’s big winners, with Johnny Goddard taking the player of the season award (male) and player manager Scott Davies winning goal of the season for his fabulous free kick in the Rebels’ FA Cup first round tie against Grimsby Town. The club also won website of the year.

Holyport’s Sam Lock and the Rebels boss Davies were also nominated for manager of the season (men’s game) after their club’s impressive campaigns, however, that honour went to the great escape act pulled off by Binfield boss Ross Weatherstone.

Holyport were nominated in four other categories, but missed out in all of them, however, they reflected a season which saw the club hoist themselves up from 14th in the Combined Counties Premier Division North in December to finish in the play-offs – the highest finish in the club’s history.

The Darrell Freeland Award was also posthumously awarded to Zufran Asghar for his 25 years of service to the football community in Slough, and Singh Sabha Slough in particular.

Having helped the Magpies women achieve their best ever points total – and score a record number of goals in the process – Jackson-Norris then guided the team to its first trophy win in eight years when they defeated Fulham’s Women on penalties to lift the Combined Counties League Cup in May.

Speaking after Wednesday’s awards event, Jackson-Norris said: “One of the things we try to stress is that everyone has a role to play. Sometimes you’re going to find yourself as the main character and go through periods where a lot of the light is on you. At other times it’s your job to just sit behind and be a cheerleader for everyone else. Everyone buys into that in our culture. This award is testament to the environment and the role everyone has played. This isn’t an individual award. I don’t see it that way, I see it more of a representation of just how good the team has been, and the group has been.

“Tonight is a great indicator that the club is moving in the right direction.

“You see how many winners we’ve had and how many nominations we’ve had on the women’s side. Futsal had some nominations; the men had some nominations, and it shows the trajectory that Maidenhead United is on. Selfishly, we want the women’s team to be the pioneers of that and the leaders of that. We want to stretch the boundaries of what Maidenhead can achieve.”

O’Brien added: “I think nights like this highlight why you give up your time on a weekend or in the evening. It reminds you of why you do what you do.

“Myself and Izzy (Stockton) joke about it a lot, but we couldn’t have got to where we’ve got without each other and I wouldn’t want to share the golden boot with anyone else. I wouldn’t have been able to score the goals I have without everyone else on the pitch working hard and getting up and down. This highlights as a team how far we’ve come.”

Having been heavily involved with the Maidenhead Boys and Girls Committee for many years, Tanya is now treasurer for the club’s juniors, taking responsibility for the mammoth task of coordinating kit for more than 600 players and equipment for more than 50 teams. She is also treasurer for Maidenhead United Women’s team – ‘her baby’ – and a trustee of the club’s Community Trust.

“We are one big team,” she said. “Neil (Maskell) is amazing. We could not be where we are and do what we do without Neil and we all just pull together.

“It is just amazing. With the introduction of the women’s development team this season, it’s just making that family even bigger. I’m so proud to be a part of it. In the past few years, we’ve seen a few girls come through from the juniors’ girls’ teams, into the Devs and now through to the first team.

“We’ve got a player pathway that is now working and that means everything. We’ve also had some trials, internal and external for the new performance squads. That’s very exciting for both the men’s and women’s side of the club. We can see even more talent coming through from that.”

See the full list of winners below.

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