Our night at the 2019 Believe sports awards exceeded all our expectations as we placed at least a top 3 finish in all of the categories that we had been nominated for.

A small contingent made the short journey over to Wigan last night, following on from the news that we had been shortlisted in the following four of the categories at this years awards and came home with a top three finish in each:

• Jennie Hilton 3rd place - Volunteer of the year
• Dave Farrington runner up - Unsung hero award
• Pennington Youth U15 - Team of the year award
• Runner up - Club of the year award

Volunteer of the year

Our very own Jennie Hilton had been shortlisted for this award on the back of her fantastic efforts to bring girls football to the club. Jennie who’s son was playing for our Pirates and approached the club asking if she could start up a girls team. One wet Wednesday evening around 3 years ago, Jennie held her first training session with around 5 girls in attendance. Over the three years the Diamonds squad has increased so much so that at the start of this season we had an Under 11 and under 10’s teams taking to the field supported by Jennie and three other coaches. In addition to the magnificent job of expanding our junior girls football provision, Jennie has recently become the clubs child welfare officer helping the club to run as smoothly as possible.

Unsung hero of the year award

Dave Farrington (or Fazz as he is known) as been club secretary for as long as anyone can remember and could be viewed as Mr Pennington himself. He has played for the club, coached and managed a Youth team through the age groups, as well as being a very active member of the committee. Fazz was a pivotal member that oversaw the building of our current clubhouse and changing rooms, and alongside Club Chairman Kev Doyley has been the driving force behind the fantastic progress the club has made over the past decade.

Team of the year award

At the end of May 2018 Andy Whittaker and Gary Darbyshire the coaches of the then Youth U14’s had a decision to make after the team had won the BBDFL A section league title. As it was clear that the team needed to find different challenges if they were to continue with their development. After a period of deliberation they decided that the right challenge was to enter the team in the Junior Premier league, and soon after, they made their mark by producing strong performances that resulted in them being allocated in the place in the Northern premier section, where they were to face teams from Rochdale academy, AFC Fylde alon with other teams from established league and high end non league clubs. Over the course of the season the team performed magnificently producing many competitive performances, to show that they had every right to be in this type of company. They even made it to the semi final of the cup competion narrowly missing out on a place in the final to a strong Kidderminster Harriers side In addition to their Junior Premier league exploits, the majority of the squad also took to the field on Sunday mornings in the U16 section of the Wigan Youth league and capped their season by winning the league and cup double. 

To come away from the awards with these results was far beyond our expectations and is a true testament to all the hard work that a small number of volunteers make on a daily basis and really shows how far the club has come over the past decade and sets the scene as we move into our 50th year.