By Matt Cecil
Wanderers winger Matt Phillips has been named the League Two Apprentice of the Year at the Football League Awards on Sunday evening, wwfc.com is delighted to reveal.
Phillips pipped Brentford's Robin Nicholls and Rochdale's George Bowyer to the title and received the award in front of more than 800 guests at the prestigious awards ceremony at Grosvenor House in London, just two weeks after celebrating his 18th birthday.
He said:
"It's great to be picking up awards this early in my career. I've played a fair amount of games this season and it has been an added bonus playing with such a good set of players.
"My hero was always Alan Shearer, even though I'm not a striker myself. Off the field, he was such a good role model and it is drummed into us at Wycombe that you've got to knuckle down off and on the field. We've had a bad run lately, but hopefully that's just a blip. We're still very confident that we can get promotion."
Elsewhere, Tommy Doherty was named the 47th best player in the Football League - and the second best in League Two behind Shrewsbury's Grant Holt - while former Wanderer Mike Williamson claimed 46th position after enjoying an impressive start to his new career with Championship side Watford.
The Blues were the only one of the 72 Football League clubs to be nominated for five awards at the dinner, including Best Marketing Campaign, Best Digital Communication, Community Club of the Year and Family Club of the Year.
However, those titles went to Preston North End, MK Dons, Brentford and Shrewsbury Town respectively, although Wycombe were highly commended in the category for Family Club of the Year for their "creative and all-round approach to welcoming families to games," according to the judging panel.
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CEO Mark Ashton and MD Steve Hayes with the Blues' commendation at the FourFourTwo Awards |
Phillips' triumph comes as a deserved reward for the teenager, who made his first-team debut less than a year ago in the league match at Notts County before starring in his first senior appearance at Adams Park in the 2-1 win over Bradford City a week later.
Under the guidance of former England winger Peter Taylor, the Aylesbury-born youngster, who joined the Blues at the age of eight, has shown maturity beyond his years this season, featuring 32 times and becoming the club's youngest ever scorer in the Football League with his strike at Aldershot Town in December.
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Matt Phillips has been a revelation for the Blues this season, scoring three times |
Off the pitch, Phillips has excelled in his academic work, completing a 1st Diploma in Sport and receiving a distinction in Unit 11, proving that he has found a perfect balance between improving his football and continuing his education.
Matt becomes the second Wycombe winger to win the award in the last three years, with former youth team player Ikechi Anya scooping the prize in 2006.
Everyone at Wycombe Wanderers would like to congratulate Matt on his success and wish him all the best for the rest of his career at Adams Park.
Coming soon: We hear the thoughts of Peter Taylor and Matt Phillips regarding the news and look forward to the visit of Barnet on Tuesday evening.
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