YCS Player Of The Year
The History
First awarded in 1997, our inaugural season, York City South presents The James Walker Memorial Trophy to our branch's player of the season following a ballot of members. The award is named in memory of James Walker, one of our founder members.
Hosting a sponsorship box, in recent seasons we've timed it for a game at the end of the season and used the occasion to award our player of the season award. Not only are we making a contribution to City, but it gives us a chance to chat with many City players and personnel.
For our branch award, Alan Fettis is the only dual winner whilst more often than not, we’ve chosen a different winner to the club’s own award. We seem to recognise attacking / flair players or keepers (think Richard Cresswell, Richard Brodie, Christian Fox and Mark Samways) whereas in the club’s own vote, the ”Main Stand” vote for the defensive stalwart (including Barry Jones (twice), Dave Merris and Tony Barras) more often than not holds sway. 2022 April 23rd 2022 YCS enjoyed hospitality, including a Jon Parkin Q&A, at the LNER Community Stadium and presented our player of the season trophy to Peter Jameson after the game. The only let down was a late Gloucester equaliser in a 1-1 draw.
Peter was a narrow winner of the award from Akil Wright, the pair polled around 85% of the vote. Paddy McLaughlin and Kurt Willoughby were equal 3rd.
2021 The trophy was not awarded following the covid curtailment of the season.
2020 March 14th YCS were due to host a hospitality box for the Altrincham game and present our player of the year award after the game. The game was postponed due to corona virus concerns. Sean Newton was the worthy winner with David Ferguson as runner up and Alex Kempster and Jordan Burrow equal 3rd. We will make alternative arrangements for presenting the trophy as soon as possible.
Before the game, Derek Feasby presented Daniel Parslow with a momento in recognition of his many years service to City. Daniel spoke about his time with City but doubted whether he'd be around next season. Also, Derek presented Joel Stern with his member of the season shield.
After the game, we presented our 2018/9 Player Of The Season award to Jordan Burrow. He was a clear cut winner with 60% of the vote. Second was Sean Newton (20%)
and third was Adam Bartlett (12%). Jordan spent a good 10 minutes chatting with us, about the game just finished and he is already looking forward to next season when he expects it to be a good one. Fully focused on his football, Jordan drives up from his Chesterfield home every day for training and matches without ever having any time to explore the city.
Spennymoor Sponsored Game - All The Pics
2019 April 19th YCS hosted a hospitality box for the Spennymoor game. As well as excellent hospitality, we entertained by a succession of City personalities.
Before the game, Derek Feasby presented Daniel Parslow with a momento in recognition of his many years service to City. Daniel spoke about his time with City but doubted whether he'd be around next season. Also, Derek presented Joel Stern with his member of the season shield.
After the game, we presented our 2018/9 Player Of The Season award to Jordan Burrow. He was a clear cut winner with 60% of the vote. Second was Sean Newton (20%)
and third was Adam Bartlett (12%). Jordan spent a good 10 minutes chatting with us, about the game just finished and he is already looking forward to next season when he expects it to be a good one. Fully focused on his football, Jordan drives up from his Chesterfield home every day for training and matches without ever having any time to explore the city.
Spennymoor Sponsored Game - All The Pics
2018 April 21st 2018 YCS hosted a hospitality box for the Leamington game. As well as all the usual fayre in the box, we entertained by a succession of City personalities.
Before the game, we presented our 2017/8 Player Of The Season award to Jon Parkin. He was a clear cut winner with 53% of the vote. Aidan Connolly (29%) was second whilst Adam Bartlett, Hamza Bencherif and Daniel Parslow shared the rest of the votes. Next up was Richard Adams, one of the new directors and long time Vice President. He told us 11 players are already contracted for next season, outlined some thoughts on the challenges ahead and spoke about the move to the new stadium.
After the game, first Aidan Connolly and Daniel Parslow also visited us. Daniel apportioned blame for the slack defending for the first Leamington goal and was lost for words about their equaliser but gave us a revealing insight on how the team reacted to the horrendous own goal by Alex Kempster.
2017 April 1st 2017 YCS hosted a hospitality box for the Braintree game. As well as all the usual fayre in the box, we enjoyed a well earned 3-0 win over Braintree.
After the game, we presented our 2016/7 Player Of The Season award. Unwashed and still in kit, Sean Newton stepped forward to receive his award from Derek Feasby. He regaled us with details of the game and demonstrated his strong feelings for City when he explained he'd been so upset when he scored an own goal at Sutton a few weeks earlier, that he hadn’t been able to sleep that night. The high spot for Andy Naylor was comparing nose jobs, Andy just post op and Sean facing up to a nose re-alignment job in the summer after his broken nose in January.
Shortly afterwards, Hamza Bencherif came up and chatted to us.
On the way out of the box, we bumped into Gary Mills, Darren Caskey, their wives and Darren’s young children. They stopped for a chat and when one of our crowd apologised to Gary for not being able to get to the midweek game at Macclesfield a few days earlier, Gary dived into his car and presented our member with a DVD of the game.
For the record, Sean Newton was the runaway winner, Daniel Parslow was 2nd and Vadaine Oliver 3rd. Jon Parkin, Aidan Connolly and Alex Whittle also registered votes.
2016
In 2016, York City South decided not to hold a Player of the Year vote this season. It was felt that there were no deserving candidates and that to award any player with an award would be merely giving lip service to the club, thus ignoring the poor results and general lack of dedication and professionalism we have seen from those donning the shirts of York City Football Club this season. The decision was not taken lightly, but was voted on unanimously by the York City South Committee.
In light of this decision, the Committee also decided that, as the branch would not be giving a Player of the Season, it would instead like to recognise the achievements and dedication of one particular individual at the club. As such, we're delighted to announce that York City South recognised the work of club Physio, Jeff Miller for his 30 years with the club. We presented him with a memento of this and of our gratitude at our hospitality game on 30th April. Jeff was really chuffed to receive his award and more than one person thought they could see a tear in his eye. 2015 2014/5 - We presented the award on April 25 when YCS sponsored a hospitality box at the final home game of the season against Newport. Many thanks to all the City players, staff and management who came up to see us throughout the day. Keith Lowe won our award with Russ Penn a close second. Rigged vote? Our independent scrutinisers raised concerns over a possible vote rigging scandal. They highlighted a late surge by one candidate which started at about 21:00 on the evening of Tuesday April 14. When we explained Russell Penn’s screamer / scorcher / thunderbolt / wonder goal / pile driver against Morecambe that secured our safety they withdrew their concerns. In the voting, earlier leader Brad Halliday couldn’t maintain his momentum, steadily, winner Keith Lowe accumulated nearly half the votes whilst Penn’s late surge carried him to second place. Michael Coulson polled enough to tie for third place with Halliday. Once again, Keith received his trophy when YCS hosted a hospitality box at Bootham Crescent. 2014 2013/4 - We presented the award on March 15 when YCS sponsored a hospitality box at the home game against Wycombe. Lanre Oyebanjo won our award with Keith Lowe and Wes Fletcher runners up. Lanre Oyebanjo won the award after another round of online voting and was presented with his trophy on the day YCS hosted a sponsors' box at Bootham Crescent. Lanre accepted his trophy in person, he, his team mates and club officials entertained us and regaled us with numerous stories. However, following a tradition dating right back to 1974, at both club and YCS level, Lanre moved on from City a couple of months later. Many thanks to all the City players, staff and management who came up to see us throughout the day 2013 and 2012 2012/3 - A double first. Voting went online and we had a dead heat (Dan Parslow and Michael Ingham). We presented the award on April 6th 2013 when YCS sponsored a box at the home game against Accrington. It could have turned into a sombre and feisty occasion in the hospitality box. A punch up was narrowly averted. Having conceded a last minute equaliser to Accrington in our 2013 survival bid, we had the players in the box to receive the award. Not one, not 2, but 3 awards.
For 2012/3, even new fangled technology couldn’t prevent a tie, so Daniel Parslow and Michael Ingham stepped forward to receive the award. A 3 way squabble over who should take the trophy home was avoided as its branch policy to award a new replica trophy every season. For 2011/2, with voting extended and the Wembley authorities denying us access to the pitch to present our 2011/2 award before our last game of that memorable season, the day also saw Matty Blair belatedly receive his 2011/2 trophy. A good time was had by all and a special thanks to the City players, staff and management who went out of their way to make it a day to remember, chatting to the players in the box was both insightful and highly amusing. 2011 And Earlier 2010/1 - With the last game of the season not being at Wembley, once again no award was made. 2009/10 - Award cancelled, again, when the Wembley authorities refused permission for us to present the award before City's last game of the season. Not to be deterred, the branch re-convened for our AGM where Richard Brodie was named as the branch's player of the season. James Meredith was second and Luke Graham also climbed onto the winners podium in third place. 2008/9 - Award cancelled when the Wembley authorities revoked permission for us to present the award before Saturday's FA Trophy Final. When the news came, a large number of votes had still to be counted. However, 3 players had been neck and neck for the esteemed trophy. The History In 1997, our inaugural season, our trophy was won by Andy McMillan and was presented to him on the pitch at Watford prior to our away game in April 1997. Its unclear whether the bubbly he received went to the players' heads and contributed to our 0-4 result. Given the logistics, it has been presented in numerous locations. They include on the pitch at Bootham Crescent, away games, hotels and more recently it has been presented in our hospitality box after our sponsorship of the game. Back in 1999, Richard Cresswell received his trophy in Sheffield Wednesday’s (his new team) hotel in south London on a dark and wet autumnal Friday night before their away game in London the following afternoon. Its rumoured that the trophy was last seen in a pawn shop on The Isle Of Dogs having been snatched from Cresswell's hands before the game at The Den the next day. The apathy of the non league years lead to the trophy not being awarded for several seasons. In 2009, trying to revive the tradition of awarding the trophy before the last game of the season, no award was made. If memory serves me right, it followed Wembley’s refusal to allow us to present the trophy on the pitch before the start of our final game, The FA Trophy Final. To this day, the 2009 winner’s name remains in a sealed enveleope at the bottom of Alastair Smith’s sock drawer. In 2013, the branch was rewarded with its foresight in putting voting online which resulted in a bumper turnout, believed to be our highest ever turnout of members and resulted in our first dead heat.
