Mirren Mad Awards 2010

Last updated : 23 May 2010 By Stuart Gillespie

The "ceremony" combines the serious awards you'll find at most end of season bashes, along with a few slightly funny ones. So, without further delay...

Player of the Year: David Barron. After spending most of last season on the sidelines while lesser able players got a game, David was asked to play most of the season out of position. Such were the level of his performances, you'd barely have known he wasn't a natural left back. Did well when switched to the other side and a real star of the future.

Young Player of the Year: Stephen McGinn. Should probably have gone to Barron, but can't have him winning two awards! McGinn was in great form for the first couple of months of the season and scored some crucial goals.

Most Improved Player of the Year: John Potter. Mainly because he couldn't possibly have been as bad as he was towards the end of last season. Still not the player he once was, but he's getting there.

Goal of the Season: Michael Higdon v Falkirk. An absolute beauty from about 35 yards that crashed off the bar on its way into the net. Honourable mentions to Craig Dargo and Billy Mehmet v Hearts and Graham Carey's free-kicks.

Individual Performance of the Season: Craig Dargo v Celtic. He might not have scored, but the striker's pace caused mayhem to Celtic's excuse of a defence and set-up one of our finest victories in decades. Special mention to Billy Mehmet's superb display against Hearts in the semi-final.

Team Performance of the Season: Second half v Falkirk. Down to 10 men after Chris Innes' red card, everyone dug in, worked their backsides off and eventually got their rewards. Just pips the semi-final performance of the season for this one.

Signing of the Season: Paul Gallagher. Superb in the first half of the season and worked his way back into the Scotland squad. Tailed off as things went on, but still a shrewd piece of business.

Worst Signing of the Season: Allan Johnston. A completely pointless signing. We didn't need another midfielder, Johnston hadn't played for a year and was as good as finished. Hardly kicked a ball.

Highlight of the Season: Beating Celtic. The cup semi-final win should perhaps take this for the occasion, but hammering Celtic is something that will live with me for ever - even though I had to watch it in the pub. It's the fact it came after that cup final disaster that left us traumatised and fearing the worst for the end of the season that makes it even more special.

Lowlight of the Season: The cup final. In particular, the last 10 minutes.

Best Decision of the Season: Switching to 3-5-2. Should have happened much sooner, but when it did we saw a terrific performance against Hearts in the semi-final to set up that day at Hampden.

Worst Decision of the Season: Whatever Gus decided to do (or not do) at the end of the cup final. Against nine men, against a Rangers team that is cash strapped and missing their best players, this was there for the taking. No one else will ever have a better chance of lifting a cup, and we blew it.

Surprise of the Season: Saints scoring from set-pieces. The number of goals from corners was well up on previous years, and Graham Carey's arrival even saw us score a free-kick.

Paul McKnight Memorial Trophy for Services to the NHS: Once again a joint award to Steven Robb and Craig Dargo (it would be unfair including Tom Brighton again), with Allan Johnston also getting a share. Isn't it curious how Robb was hardly injured when Graham Carey arrived to provide competition for his position?

Services to Comedy Award: Rangers in Europe. Oh how we laughed. Special mention to the Celtic defence.

Forgotten Man Award: Rory Loy. Just what did he have to do to get a game after he arrived?

Best Impression of a Bus: Hugh Murray goals. You wait over two years for one...

The Chocolate Teapot Award for Pointlessness: Allan Johnston. As mentioned above, a signing that made little sense at the time and makes even less nine months on.

Best Performance by a Former Saint: Charlie Adam. Sensational in the Blackpool midfield and scored one of the goals at Wembley that got them into the Premiership.

Most unexpected chant of the season: "We want five"/"Easy". Saints fans rarely get to sing these chants during a league game - but they're unheard of during a league game against Celtic. They got an airing on one glorious night in March, along with "Sacked in the morning", which proved to be a rather accurate prediction about Tony Mowbray's future.

There is still one award to be dished out this season and that's the Mirren Mad player of the year award that the site's visitors vote for. The results should be up later this week - if I remember!