Olivia Askam was delighted to collect three awards at the recent PNEWFC end-of-season player awards ceremony and she is now hoping to take momentum from that achievement to challenge for promotion next season.
📸 #PNEWFC were at Deepdale yesterday for an end-of-season presentation night!
— Preston North End Women's Football Club (@PNE_WFC) May 15, 2022
🏆 Golden Boot, Managers' Player and Players' Player: Olivia Askam
🏆 Most improved: Ella Radcliffe
🏆 'Clubman' - recognising commitment to the club: Alisha Houghton
Well done girls. 🙌#pnefc pic.twitter.com/Q1SgrZZxPr
The ex-Liverpool attacker made it a hat-trick of awards, picking up the Managers’ Player of the Year, the Players’ Player of the Year, and the Golden Boot.
The team were at Deepdale last weekend for their end-of-season awards evening where Ella Radcliffe and Alisha Houghton were also recognised, with the Most Improved Player and Clubman awards, respectively.
Askam’s great form throughout the season helped the team to a fourth-place finish in the North West Women’s Regional League Division One North and they are now ready to hit the ground running next term.
Speaking to PNE.Com, Askam said: “It felt honestly amazing, I wasn’t expecting it at all.
“I work hard and try and give my best for the team and to be recognised for that is great. It just gives me that motivation to kick on for next season.
“It was a good season, there are still things to work on and obviously this season we started slowly because we hadn’t played as one collective team before.
“You can see the progression throughout the season as our bond grew stronger, so I think we’re starting at a stronger point going into next season.”
The 24-year-old appreciated the recognition from her team-mates in particular and she hopes the confidence she gained from that award can be of benefit for the whole group in 2022/23.
She said: “It felt great, especially to be recognised by your team-mates; I think that one stood out for me. It just gives me the confidence really to push on for next season.”
Askam was the winner of the Golden Boot award for the team after scoring one more league goal than fellow attacker Lucy Swift during the recently concluded campaign but she was unsure whether she had come out on top in the goalscoring stakes.
“I knew Swifty was close behind me because she scored five in one game, so I knew she wasn’t far behind me and I’m pretty sure she would’ve won if she played more games up front, so I knew sort of where I was but not exactly. I knew I was up there but I wasn’t sure.”
Askam and her team-mates all have a common goal going into next season of challenging for promotion.
“We’ve got our sights set on promotion and I’m confident we can do that. We’ll be looking to win every game and obviously if we do that we will get promoted.
“We already have a good squad as it is and hopefully, we can get a good turnout in the open training nights. We can build on it and I’m confident that our team is good enough to win every game and therefore get promotion.”
For more information about the women’s team’s open training nights, please click here. Alternatively, click here for our online expression of interest form to register an interest in joining the women’s team at any age group level.