Pope is double winner at virtual Burnley FC Player of the Year Awards

Nick Pope was a double winner as Burnley held their annual Player of the Year Awards on Sunday night.
Nick PopeNick Pope
Nick Pope

The Clarets keeper was named Player of the Year and Players' Player at a virtual ceremony, in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope enjoyed a campaign in which he took over as number one after signing a new contract last summer, before the sale of club captain Tom Heaton to Aston Villa, and went on to keep a club Premier League record 15 clean sheets, just missing out to Manchester City's Ederson on the last day for the Goloden Glove.

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He also celebrated his first start - and second cap - for England in a 4-0 win in Kosovo.

Pope came out on top in the fans’ vote - beating James Tarkowski, Ashley Westwood and Dwight McNeil - and was also the choice of his colleagues in the dresssing room, edging out another seven nominations.

And Pope said: “We have a good set of lads in the dressing room, so to get their approval and get their vote means a lot to me.

“The main vote means everything as it is voted by fans.

"They are the people that watch week in week out and support us through thick and thin, which we always get during the seasn.

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“We have our high and low moments. we have patches where we might not win for three or four weeks, but they stick with us every inch of the way and to end on the points total we did is to payback for sticking with us through the harder times we had during the season.”

Burnley-born striker Jay Rodriguez, back at the club after returning from West Brom last summer, won Goal of the Season for his stunning effort to seal a 2-0 victory against Manchester United at Old Trafford in January - the Clarets' first at the Theatre of Dreams since 1962.

Striker Max Thompson was named as Youth Team Player of the Year, the 18-year-old crowning his season with a Premier League debut at Manchester City in June after the restart.

Goalkeeper and captain Lauren Bracewell was named Burnley FC Ladies’ Player of the Year as the side played at the highest level in their history after successive promotions

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There were four Centurion Awards handed out, to captain Ben Mee, after making his 300th appearance for the club, while midfielder Ashley Westwood, winger Johann Berg Gudmundsson and striker Chris Wood all received awards for reaching 100 appearances.

And Wood was named Top Goalscorer award. Wood, after finishing the season with 14 goals.