Blantyre Victoria are hopeful of keeping all of their Player of the Year night awards winners in South Lanarkshire for this season.
Captain Craig Kerr won Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year after his stellar defensive performances in the West of Scotland Football League Premier Division, despite ultimately being relegated.
Scott Gibson was the fans’ Player of the Year while Darvel loanee Conor O’Donnell won Young Player of the Year.
Talks are ongoing to keep the latter but boss John Gibson says his namesake and his captain are sticking around.
He said: “Craig is the captain and his awards are thoroughly deserved. There’s been a lot of interest in him this year but he has stayed loyal to Blantyre. He’s been here since he was 17.
“His performances in the top division have been top class so it’s no surprise that there have been a few clubs interested in him. I can see why he won both of those awards as it’s thoroughly deserved.
“It’s always important to keep your captain, that’s the first port of call. It doesn’t matter how good any of the other players are, I always try to get my captain tied up first.
“I’m happy he’s tied up as we look to get back up to the top division. Scott had a very good season. He’s come in and been an experienced player for us. He’s played senior level at Queen’s Park for a number of years.
“He’s played a lot of senior games and since coming in from Cumbernauld Colts last year. He’s another one we wanted to keep and he has decided to stay.
“Conor was on loan from Darvel and despite not being here for the full season, he was really impressive. He’s only 18 but he has a big future ahead of him, whether that’s at Darvel, here or elsewhere.”
Sam McKenzie meanwhile scooped top goalscorer and he will also remain at Blantyre as he combines his role as an analyst with the Scotland national team alongside his Vics duties.
Gibson added: “Sam is involved with Scotland. He’s been away with the first team over in Ireland as an analyst. He’s got a good background in sport.
“Scotland had a lot of fixtures last year so he could have had more goals than he actually did, but again, he’s signed on next year. That’s a bonus.
“We haven’t given up on Conor but hopefully we can get a full sweep of everyone. That would be good ahead of pre-season.”
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
