Preston North End were the big winners at this year's Northwest Football Awards, picking up more awards than any other club as the area's biggest stars descended on Manchester's Midland Hotel for the second annual celebration of all things great and good in this proud footballing region.
Some of the game's best known faces such as Sir Bobby Charlton, Ian Rush, Mark Lawrenson, Ray Stubbs and Gordon Taylor were in attendance as PNE secured four awards in total, comfortably ahead of the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City who were all in the running for many of the major prizes.
Headline acts Sean St. Ledger and Sir Tom Finney took home the Championship Player of the Year Award and the Lifetime Contribution to Northwest Football Award respectively, while the Club's Healthy Schools Project in conjunction with the Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust was adjudged the winner in the Community Scheme Project of the Year category and North End's policy of increasing revenue through 'going green' via initiatives such as printing our rebranded programme on recycled paper and initiating new matchday promotions such as the 'Footyrider' scheme helped us to land the Football League and Conference Best Club Marketing Campaign accolade.
Former North Ender David Moyes also secured a top prize as he was named Northwest Manager of the Year, thanking his former employers at Deepdale in his acceptance speech for giving him so much time to prove himself in his first managerial post, and also showering praise on his former number two, Alan Irvine, who was amongst the audience.
General manager Ben Rhodes was delighted with the Club's haul, revealing:
"It goes without saying that we're delighted to have collected so many of the awards for which we were nominated and great congratulations are in order to everyone who has been striving to achieve success for Preston North End over the past 12 months.
"These accolades show that the Club continues to progress on and off the pitch, and are a testimony to the level of effort that goes in to the running of a successful Championship club which realises its position within society.
"We've got a big role to play at the heart of our local community, and these awards are a testimony to the excellent work being produced at all levels of the Club in order to better Preston as a city and the surrounding area."
The Northwest Football Awards are a co-production between Out There Events and How Do Publishing, and were supported by headline sponsors Bank of America.
Congratulations to everyone involved in securing these top prizes - here's to more success in 2009!
