A Midlands woman who has devoted over 40 years to developing women's football in the Midlands has been honoured by The Football Association. Mary Hull, the Chairperson of Aston Villa Ladies, was nominated by her peers to win the Special Achievement Award at today's Awards Ceremony.

Mary was presented with her honour, along with 12 other award winners, at the Marriot Hotel, Grosvenor Square on Thursday afternoon.

Mary has been involved in women's football for 40 years in the West Midlands and has been chairperson for Aston Villa Ladies for the last 15 years. Her interest in women's football started when she played alongside her daughter for encouragement. The Award comes at a special time, as she is retiring from her women's football work this summer just a few weeks after Aston Villa earned promotion to the women's top flight.

Mary received her Award from FA Vice-Chairman Ray Kiddell, who headed a panel that judged over 50 nominations for this year's award

The ceremony was presented by Sky Sports' Jeff Stelling as a fitting end to a momentous season for women's football, which has seen the overall number of female participants jump 38 per cent in one year, with 85,000 girls and women playing in affiliated league and cup competitions - remaining the number one female sport in the country.

The Midlands was well represented at the ceremony with three other winners coming from the region. Local 16-year-old Eniola Aluko was voted by clubs in the top three women's leagues - The FA Nationwide Premier League - as the Umbro Young Player of the Year. Eniola recently starred for the England Under-19 team, scoring on her debut last month to help the team qualify for the UEFA U19 European Championship Finals in July.

Eniola's club manager Marcus Bignot, the Rushden & Diamonds defender, has been voted as the Nationwide Manager of the Year for seeing his young Birmingham City side finish fifth in their debut season in the women's top flight, while Wolves Women will be presented with TheFA.com Media Award for their work to promote their team in the local media. 

The big winner on the day though was Jayne Ludlow, the Arsenal and Wales midfielder, voted as the Nationwide Players' Player of the Year. Although Arsenal ended their first season in 12 years without a trophy, the top players in the game nominated Ludlow as the best player in England this season. It is the second time that Ludlow has won the award - she picked up the honour two years ago in her debut season with the Gunners Ladies.

Charlton Athletic's Amanda Barr picked up the Umbro Top Goal Scorer Award as a result of the 17 league goals she scored this season helping Charlton to a fourth-placed National Division finish.

Amanda was a key component as the Addicks reached The FA Women's Cup Final and she has taken her England record up to 15 caps and two goals. She wins a pair of the new Umbro XAI Pro football boots - the first boots FA Partners Umbro have designed specifically for women.

Picking up the Southern Division Award was Bristol Rovers' Trudy Williams with an impressive 37 goals, while Mel Reay of Sunderland and Kelly Dean of Oldham Curzon shared the Northern Division prize with 17 goals apiece. All three girls were previous winners of the Top Goalscorer awards.

From Bev Ward