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AndyRoss
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Ah, so the first team award is scrapped totally.. Got it, thought it was for Thomas's first team appearances.

Yeah, it was a unanimous decision to scrap the first team award but we also wanted to try and turn the negative side of it into a bit of a positive by shining a light on a good season for the U20s. Given we all follow the U20s with interest, particularly Sparra who's been at a number of games this season, we felt we could make an informed decision on the winner of an U20s award. We certainly wouldn't have done it otherwise!

 

But aye, Dom Thomas has been a stand-out in a good season for the U20s with a number of great performances from numerous players throughout the year.

 

Regardless, I don't think we expected such a move would make the Sun...

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The way I see it, the Dom Thomas award is protest vote that underlines fans' frustrations. He's a fine prospect yes and has done well in his limited game time but thats it. In such votes I usually cast mine on the basis of who has contributed most to whatever level of success the team has achieved, even if that is modest.

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The way I see it, the Dom Thomas award is protest vote that underlines fans' frustrations. He's a fine prospect yes and has done well in his limited game time but thats it. In such votes I usually cast mine on the basis of who has contributed most to whatever level of success the team has achieved, even if that is modest.

As explained above, the award was changed from a first-team award to the U20s POTY so therefore no, that isn't "it". The decision to do so may be borne out of fans' frustrations but he has had a fantastic season with the U20s, including being the top goalscorer. How well he has done in his limited game time in the first-team is irrelevant to an U20s award.

 

As for how you would personally vote, that's fine. I would normally agree. As I mentioned on the podcast, Kenny McLean for example would probably have won the St Mirren POTY if he was still there and they finish bottom (he might still do!) - because he was a stand out. But there's a way to lose football matches and there's even a way to finish bottom (see the Faddy/Pearo/Hammell admin season for a pretty good example). That's usually because you work hard and battle away but you're just not good enough. None of us felt that was an accurate description of our season.

 

Unfortunately, we had the situation where the deadline had to be continually moved because many of the folk taking part couldn't justify voting for anyone or simply refused to pick someone due to there being nobody deserving of it. There are so many awards in football nowadays, and all of them come with an automatic expectation that they'll just be dished out regardless - we took the decision that a Player of the Year award should be earned by the Player of the Year, not simply handed to the least awful Player of the Year.

 

And, having made that decision, Dom Thomas was our choice of U20s POTY (not first-team POTY).

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The way I see it, the Dom Thomas award is protest vote that underlines fans' frustrations. He's a fine prospect yes and has done well in his limited game time but thats it. In such votes I usually cast mine on the basis of who has contributed most to whatever level of success the team has achieved, even if that is modest.

 

In all honesty, I was embarrased to offer a POTY to anyone in our team, The person who won it was voted for on the fact he had tried hard. Second place finish has had 9 appearances (the last few being awful).

Jay and I were discussing it at Hamilton and decided to put it to Sparra that we should scrap the idea, again for me, solely on the fact I was embarrased with the thought of offering an award any one of them.

 

It was the other day Jay and Sparra came up with the idea of offering it to someone in the under 20s as Sparra was off to another u20s game.

 

Out of curiosty who would (any of) you choose as your POTY?

It took me ages to decide and then I was not even sure of why.

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It's pretty simple to be honest - we decided that, unlike most other awards, we'd have an expected standard or level of performance that would have to be met first, in order to ensure the actual award was deserved. The completely laboured and largely soul-destroying process of trying to convince folk that they might be able to justify voting for someone made it very clear that that level hadn't been met.

We then looked at the U20s and found a number of players could be considered candidates for a specifically U20s award but that Dom Thomas was the clear stand-out.

I still don't think it's particularly newsworthy but then I'm constantly surprised at what is and isn't deemed reportable in the mainstream media...

So that's STV News and the Scottish Sun so far - I wonder where we'll turn up next!

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Don't think we could have been much clearer that it wasn't a protest vote, these things require organising and if we had just adodpted the mentality of the majority of our first-team squad we'd have simply just chucked it.

 

This gives the chance of a bit of recognition for a young lad that has been performing well and appears to be very much on the up.

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I thought it was a wise and innovative move to go with the u20 poty. In turn it gives recognition to a player who has produced the most excitement at Motherwell this season with his impressive U20 performances.

 

If I had to give it to someone, it would probably be Twardzik because despite his limitations, he's a player that did give his all and showed a bit of character in adversity.

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Just listened to this weeks podcast. Found myself agreeing with Jay that it is a mentiality issue at the club that is right down to the core. Huge clear out needed.

 

Also good to hear the thought of Philip Speedie. He articulated himself far better than he used to whilst standing in the back row of the East Stand.

 

As an end of season special you should invite on Anthony Straker.

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Think Jay called it spot on.

 

I've thought all season we've had a look of the hibs about us!

 

They were a fragile team for years before they eventually got relegated, even going back to the 6-6 game, they were bottle merchants who collapsed like a cheap deck chair, but occasionally could be brilliant.

 

I know he wasn't there last season, but players like Riordan (see ainsworth) who are capable of producing Magic now and again, but are useless when the chips are down epitomised their attitude problem.

 

Great to hear what the stadium announcer actually sounds like too!

:P

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