Pope wins at Football League Awards 2013

Port Vale’s Tom Pope has been named the npower League 2 Player of the Year at the Football League Awards 2013.

Pope received the award at the gala ceremony at The Brewery, London, on Sunday evening in front of over 600 guests from clubs, sponsors and the football industry. This year there were a total of 17 awards with 34 clubs shortlisted for honours.

Pope beat two other shortlisted League 2 players to the Award, Bradford City’s Gary Jones and Exeter City’s Jamie Cureton.

Pope has taken npower League 2 by storm this season, with the 2012/13 campaign being only 11 games old by the time he had surpassed his previous best goals return for a season. He has become a record breaker along the way, with his hat-trick against Bristol Rovers in November meaning he became the fastest-ever Vale player to reach 20 goals from the start of the season.

“My goals have dried up recently but that is more down to the opposition doing a good job on us. This award will give me more confidence though but if we don’t get promoted, winning this award won’t seem as sweet as it could have done.”

On winning his award, Pope said: “It is a great achievement for me personally but anyone who knows Tom Pope, knows he needs good service from other players, and the squad have certainly been providing me with that.

The npower Player of the Year for the Championship was won by Watford’s Matej Vydra, while the League 1 Award went to AFC Bournemouth’s Matt Ritchie.

 The shortlists were produced after managers from every club were asked to submit their top five players of the season from their division, excluding players from their own club.

Greg Clarke, Chairman of The Football League, said: “The Football League Awards 2013 has given us another opportunity to celebrate success at League clubs both on and off the pitch. It gives us the chance to reward those who have achieved fantastic results throughout the year. I would like to congratulate tonight’s winners and all those who were nominated.”

Other notable winners on the night included Blackpool’s Thomas Ince, who walked away with the npower Young Player of the Year and Bradford City’s Phil Parkinson who won the award for Outstanding Managerial Achievement.

Peter Shilton OBE received the prestigious Contribution to League Football Award. Previous winners include Shrewsbury Town manager Graham Turner, Crewe Alexandra Director of Football Dario Gradi MBE and PFA Chief Executive Gordon Taylor OBE.

To find out more about The Football League Awards, and for a full list of Award categories, please visitwww.FLAwards.com