CAPTAIN Mat Liddiard dominated the awards at the Cirencester Town FC presentation evening on Friday which was a surprisingly buoyant occasion given that the team had just been relegated.

Liddiard collected both the Manager’s Player of the Year and the Supporters’ Player of the Year award, while the coveted Players’ Player gong went to popular midfielder Adam Connolly.

Town chairman Steve Abbley claimed manager Charlie Griffin had been handed a poisoned chalice when he took over the job at the beginning of October.

“We went down but it was not for a lack of effort from Charlie and Oggie Hunt,” said Abbley.

“No one died, we lost some football matches, but we will win a lot more next season.”

Griffin is already making plans for the new season in the Evo-Stik Southern League Div One South and West and he is expecting the vast majority of his current squad to return when they will be playing on a pristine new 3G pitch at the Corinium Stadium.

Griffin said: “I have now been here for two years, 18 months as a player and six months as manager and this club is second to none.

“It is very professionally run and we have the excitement of a new pitch and perhaps a new style of football next season.

“We’ve just had a tough campaign when we had a little too much catching up to do.

“I had quite a few mornings walking around Malmesbury at 5am thinking about this job and I can tell you there aren’t many people on the streets of Malmesbury at that time of day.

“There are still a lot of positives to be taken from the season, not least the half a dozen development players who came through to play for the first team.

“We’re going to hit the ground running in July and give it a real go to get back in the Premier League.

“I would like to thank the chairman Steve Abbley for giving me my first job in management and I want to repay his loyalty by getting this club back where it belongs.”

Next week a party of players and management will be flying out to the bars and golf courses around Magaluf in Majorca on the annual binge funded by the chairman.

CIRENCESTER TOWN PRESENTATION EVENING

1st XI

Supporters' Player of the Year: Mat Liddiard; Players' Player: Adam Connolly. Manager's Player: Mat Liddiard.

1st XI Man of Match Award: Aidan Bennett.

Clubman: Scott Griffin, who received a beautiful illustration of his children by the club’s programme editor Terry Keogh.

Dick Reed Memorial Cup: Matt Sykes.

Development Team

Players' Player: Danny Gudger; Manager's Player: Liam James; Supporters' Player: Ayden Roberts.

Academy

Top Scorer: Dan Greave; 1st Year Player of the Year: Joe Williams; 1st Year Players’ Player: Luke Jones.

2nd Year Player of the Year: Dan Greave; 2nd Year Players' Player: Matthew Grabe.

Girls: Player of the Year: Katherine Bach; Players’ Player (joint): Georgie Gibson and Chloe Scalon.