Mirren Mad Awards 2008

Last updated : 02 June 2008 By Stuart Gillespie
As usual, there are a number of proper, serious categories as well as some that seemed amusing to me but probably aren't to anyone else.

Player of the Season: Will Haining. Billy Mehmet may have been voted the player of the year by our readers, but in my view Will Haining has been superb in defence. We've looked a lot worse at the back when he has been missing and he has had to deal with a few off the field problems as well. The only downside were a couple of red cards.

Young Player of the Season: David Barron. A fantastic breakthrough season for the right back. After making his first appearance just before Christmas, he never looked back and established himself as one of the first names on the team sheet. A good cross on him, he's also able to do the job defensively and kept Aiden McGeady extremely quiet when Celtic came to town. Not bad when he's really a centre half! Partick Thistle's loss is very much our gain.

Most Improved Player of the Season: Billy Mehmet. Eight goals may not sound like much of a return for a striker who has been playing every week, but it was enough for him to be our top scorer. It was also more than he had scored in his two previous seasons with us! Has worked hard to improve all aspects of his game and will hopefully continue to get better over the next few years.

Goal of the Season: Gary Mason v Hearts. A few seemed to be scored against us, but this peach at Tynecastle after the split from Gary Mason was superb. A stunning, dipping, long range volley.

Game of the Season: Saints 2-1 Hibs. It's hard to pick a really good game we were involved in this season, so I'll go for this one at the start of the year. A hilarious first goal, a comedy of errors for the second, a good Saints performance and a late goal from Hibs to make things interesting.

Signing of the Season: Andy Dorman. No contest. Goodness knows what we'd have done if he'd arrived in the summer - or if he hadn't arrived at all. Possibly the most exciting player we've seen at Love Street for some time, you almost expect good things to happen whenever he gets the ball. One of Gus MacPherson's best ever signings - but for how long will we be able to keep him?

Highlight of the Season: Owning Edinburgh. OK, so it's two moments, but managing wins at both Easter Road and Tynecastle in the space of a few months was a fantastic achievement and gave us a good laugh.

Lowlight of the Season: Cup exits. Again, two moments, but both terrible nights. Going out of the League Cup to East Fife was disgraceful, while the Scottish Cup defeat to St. Johnstone was a terrible night on which very few players performed.

Surprise of the Season: Gretna's fall from grace. We knew fairly early on they would go down. We knew when their players didn't get paid they were in trouble. But did anyone really see things falling apart quite as badly as they have done? And something tells me we haven't heard the half of it!

Best Decision of the Season: SPL denying Rangers' request to move the fixtures. It was about time the SPL stood up to one half of the Old Firm - that it annoyed them made it all the more amusing.

Worst Decision of the Season: Eddie Smith giving Celtic a free-kick. There was no foul. If there was, it was on Gary Mason. But, as usual, the decision goes in the favour of the Old Firm side and Nakamura curls home a late winner.

Best Attacking Display by a Scottish Team in Europe: Rangers fans in Manchester. Showing more attack than their team had in the UEFA Cup all season, the award winners are worthy of their title.

Best Ronaldinho/David Seaman Impression: Ian Maxwell/Yves Ma Kalambay. Unlike the bucktoothed Brazilian, we know Maxi didn't mean this one, but it was still a classic. The mishit cross. The sudden realisation that it might be sneaking in. The clunk as it clipped the post on its way into the net. The laughter.

The "I'll say what every fan has known for years" award: Craig Levein. Finally someone whose opinion matters a bit came out with a rant about the blatant biased this country's referees have towards the Old Firm. Sadly, instead of taking actions against the officials, the SFA will punish Levein.

Best Display of Gallus: James McFadden v France. In ten years time this shot will be a 90 yarder. A stunning strike, god knows why McFadden was having a go from there. An effort that made us believe mission impossible was just about doable.

That's all for this year folks, tune in next year for more serious awards and my woeful attempts to be funny.