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Key figures honoured at Women's Awards

Tuesday, 29 June, 2010

Kim Little among recipients at 12th FA Women's Football Awards.

The key figures in the Women’s game were today honoured at Wembley Stadium during the 12th annual FA Women’s Football Awards.

Arsenal midfielder, and birthday girl, Kim Little was the biggest winner, picking up two separate awards, the Umbro Top Goalscorer (National Division) award and The FA Tesco Players’ Player of the Year award, after her 22-goal haul helped fire the Gunners to their seventh consecutive Women’s Premier League title.

Little’s club was named the Tesco Club of the Year after enjoying another successful season despite a raft of high profile departures and they came agonisingly close to winning another League and Cup double, only for Natasha Dowie’s late strike to deny them another piece of silverware and send The FA Women’s Cup up to Everton for the first time in 21 years.

Meanwhile, one former Gunner, midfielder Katie Chapman, who is now playing her trade in America for Chicago Red Stars, was named the Nationwide England International Player of the Year following a number of impressive performances for her country during their FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifying campaign.

Unfortunately, neither Little or Chapman were available to collect their awards but there were a number of other worthy recipients who did make it to Wembley’s Bobby Moore Suite for a celebration of Women’s football.

One of these recipients was Leeds Carnegie manager Rick Passmoor who lifted The FA Tesco Manager of the Year (National Division) award after leading his club to a first ever domestic trophy, when, in February, two Ellen White goals helped Leeds beat Everton in The Final of The FA Women’s Premier League Cup. Under Passmoor’s stewardship, Leeds remained competitive in the National Division, finishing a credible fourth. They lost only five League matches all season and conceded the fewest number of goals of any side in the Division.

"I'd like to think this award is in recognition of what we've done at the club over the last ten years, not just last season," said Passmoor. "Any sort of achievement we receive, we accept as a club and the volunteers we have at Leeds, Sue and Steve Walton, for example, are part of that as well because without them none of our success would be possible.

"When I see the likes of Jess Clarke, Ellen White, Gemma Bonner, Sophie Bradley, Rachel Daly, Mel Sutcliffe come through the ranks, play for the first team and play for England; money can't buy that and that in itself is a good enough award for me."

The awards were hosted by BBC Sport’s Jacqui Oatley and were attended by 250 of the biggest names in the Women’s game, including representatives from the England Women’s senior squad. British Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis was also on-hand to present the Arsenal manager Laura Harvey with their Club of the Year award.

One player who will be hoping to progress into that senior squad is Sunderland midfielder Jordan Nobbs, the newly-crowned FA Young Player of the Year. Nobbs helped the England Women’s U19 team to European glory last summer and also helped them reach this year’s Final, where they lost to France.

"There are some amazing young players in the country so it came as a bit of a shock to be honest," said Nobbs, on winning her award. "It's a great privilege even to be in the top three, never mind winning it, so I'm obviously very happy that I did.

"I think I had a decent season; you always know when you've played well and when you've not played so well. I still think I can improve though. I've played to the best of my ability and I've had some great help from Sunderland and the U19s and now I’m looking forward to the U20 World Cup next month.”

There were notable mentions too for Sue Prior, who was presented with a Special Achievement award, and Liverpool WFC who picked up The FA Fair Play award after going the whole season without receiving a single red or yellow card.

The full list of all 14 award winners is as follows:

Umbro Top Goalscorer (National Division)

Kim Little, Arsenal (22 goals)

Umbro Top Goalscorer (Northern Division)

Cheryl Foster, Liverpool (16 goals)

Umbro Top Goalscorer (Southern Division)

Stacy Sowden, Barnet (17 goals)

The FA Young Player of the Year

Jordan Nobbs, Sunderland

The FA Club Media Award

Leeds Carnegie

The FA Club Marketing Award

Doncaster Rovers Belles