The annual Football Writers’ Awards took place at Peel Football Club’s impressive Kelvin Dawson Community Hub on Tuesday evening.
Five accolades were dished out marking various achievements in last season’s Canada Life Premier League campaign.
Picking up the coveted Gordon Clague Memorial Trophy for Player of the Year was Lee Gale.
The Peel attacker scored 31 goals as the westerners finished three points behind champions Ayre United.
Gale has completed a move back to the Foxdale side he played for as a youngster over the close season, but was happy to return to his former club to pick up the award earlier this week.
He said: ‘It's brilliant [to win the award]. It’s fantastic - it’s the second time I've won the trophy and I’m delighted to pick it up again.’
Talking about his return to Dale for the 2024/25 campaign that kicks off this weekend, the former FC Isle of Man winger added: ‘I always promised them I'd go back one day.
‘I'm going to miss a good chunk of the season when I go travelling in November, but I thought I might not get the chance to do it again.
‘I’ve had 16/17 amazing years at Peel, but you can't play footy forever and now seemed the right time to honour my word.
‘I said to them when I left when I was 14, if you come up, I'll definitely come back.’
Looking ahead to Dale’s return to the top flight for the first time in 28 years, Gale added: ‘Pre-season has been really good. We played Laxey at the weekend and won 3-1.
‘The week before that we played Youthie and won 8-1. There's already little partnerships that have started forming across the pitch.
‘I definitely think there's enough for the boys to stay up and cause a few upsets along the way.’
Picking up one of the evening’s other awards was Ayre player-manager Nick Hurt who guided the Tangerines to a second top-flight title in three seasons last term.
The former Isle of Man gaffer was happy to pick up the accolade again, adding: ‘It's amazing to win this award again with United, but I've got to say that you don't get these sort of awards without the lads and the committee.
‘Everyone's put a lot of effort into achieving what we've achieved. So it's more of a club award, I would say. It's fantastic that United are on the map and doing so well.’
Hurt says the aim for the Tangerines again is to challenge for silverware this term, but is aware his side will have a target on their back as reigning champions. The former Michael United man said: ‘It gets harder to sort of go again, refocus and push, but we've had three friendlies and we've done okay.
‘We should be pushing on and trying to be in that top four again though.’
Gale’s former Peel team-mate Tomas Brown was named under-21 Player of the Year after an impressive season for the westerners in which he bagged 22 goals in all competitions.
The Golden Glove, awarded to the best goalkeeper in the seasonal player ratings rankings, went to Ramsey’s James Rice. The former St John’s stopper helped the northerners to a third-place finish and Hospital Cup victory.
Getting the nod as the writers’ Referee of the Year was Andy Lodge, who beat Rob Slinger and former winner Stuart Kneen to the award.
- Don’t miss interviews with both Nick and Lee in this week’s first Manx Footy Pod of the season, which is out later this week.
