Newry City Ladies captain Aoife Lennon scoops NIWFA Player of the Year Award

Members of the women’s football community joined special guests at a gala dinner to celebrate the end of another successful season.

NIWFA Premier League Player of the Year Aoife Lennon (Newry City Ladies) shows off her trophy along with NIFWA chairwoman Susan O’Neill, Sports Minister Caral Ni Chuilin and Sara Booth, Irish FA Women’s Domestic Football Manager

The 38th season proved to be the most exciting yet with the Premier League title decided on the last day when Newry City Ladies dramatically clinched the trophy ahead of Linfield Ladies.

In the Championship Derry City Ladies completed a fantastic year by securing the league and earning themselves Premier League status for the 2016 season.

Newry City Ladies captain Aoife Lennon won the flagship trophy on the night as she picked up the NIWFA Premier League Player of the Year Award, while prolific goalscorer Kirsty McGuinness (Linfield Ladies) claimed the NIWFA Premier League Top Goalscorer Award.

Keynote speaker Rachel Pavlou, the FA National Women’s Football Development Manager, was joined by other special guests at the gala dinner including Sports Minister Caral Ni Chuilin, MLA Michelle McIlveen and Anna Signuel, the Scottish Women’s National Coach.

The Chairwoman of NIWFA, Susan O’Neill, congratulated all the players, coaches, volunteers and officials for making the 2015 season such a success. “The NIWFA Awards night is to celebrate the successes of the season. It is a great way to unite the teams and honour all our players.

“Congratulations to all the award winners and nominees and to everybody who participated and helped make the 2015 season so exciting,” Susan added.

An exciting addition this season was the NIWFA Premier League Goal of the Season Award, which was chosen via a Facebook poll. Cliftonville Ladies player Marissa Callaghan’s long range effort was the overall winner, attracting 41% of the votes.

More than 7000 people viewed the goal and more than 37,000 were engaged in the Facebook campaign.

A special Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by JC May, was presented to Stephen Calvert, the current manager of Crusaders Strikers, recognising 23 years of volunteering in women’s football.

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Posted by Newry Times News on Oct 16 2015. Filed under Community, News, Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry