Awards Night 2025
- Winning In The Rain
- Jun 29
- 3 min read
Oban Saints Amateur Football Club held their annual awards night at The View last Friday night where refreshments and a buffet preceded the main event chaired by Club Secretary David Buchanan who shrugged off his recent knee injury to ensure proceedings ran smoothly.
Saints Supremo Buchanan thanked the healthy turnout of players, management and committee members for their attendance and their continuing support at the end of what has been another difficult season for the club. He especially thanked youngsters Connor Beattie, Donald Campbell and Innes Fraser whose contribution since making the step up from the youth ranks in January has been immense and far beyond expectation.
Before proceeding to the awards, Buchanan paid tribute to Manager Ross Maitland who is standing down after three years in the hotseat and introduced the new management team of Steven MacLeod and Graham Douglas. MacLeod and Douglas will be assisted by coaches Archie MacLean, David Dunlop and Peter MacCallum all of whom continue their long association with the club. In his absence, Secretary Buchanan thanked Iain Jackson for his unwavering support as Assistant Manager during Ross Maitland's term and expressed his hope that both will remain involved in the running of the club at committee level.
Finally, "Mr Oban Saints" Buchanan demonstrated that his recent injury woes hadn't diminished his commitment to the Club by unveiling a busy preseason fixture schedule which will see Lochgilphead Red Star, Westerlands, Rhu Amateurs and Shortlees visit Glencruitten. Those four fixture will be preceded by the D&K Lafferty Cup Tournament where Dundee United, Hamilton Academical, Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle and Queens Park will join Oban Saints for the traditional preseason curtain raiser.
With the introductions out of the way Ross Maitland joined David Buchanan on the floor for the presentation ceremony. First up was the Young Player of the Year award where Rhys Millar pipped a strong field, including Shaye Black, Keiran Griffin and Alec McInroy who all impressed in their debut seasons, to lift the trophy.
The top goal scorer award once again went to Connor Moore. Eighteen different players featured on the score sheet during the season but Moore's tally of twenty-two goals was enough to see off the challenge of David Beaton and Rhys Millar who were the only others to reach double figures.
The Player's Player of the Year trophy went to popular central defender Ben Forbes as a fitting reward for consistency of performance at the heart of an often-overworked defence. Forbes also marked an excellent personal season with his first goal for the club opening the scoring in a convincing win against Port Glasgow OBU at the beginning of March before doubling his tally seven weeks later with the consolation goal in a heavy defeat at the hands of Greenock High School Former Pupils.
Next was the new category of Referee's Player of the Year. At every fixture during the course of the season the match Referee was asked to select the Saints player who had impressed him the most. In all, twelve players were selected at least once however the consistently high-performance levels of Club Captain Scott Maitland ultimately made him the clear winner.
The final award was the Coaches Player of the Year award where competition was again keen. After much deliberation the Coaches were in full agreement that the standout performer over the course of the season had been Scott Maitland making it a deserved double for the Skipper.
Before leaving the floor David Buchanan made one final presentation to mark the distinguished service of departing Manager Ross Maitland. With the exception of a spell in the Australian semi-professional ranks, and a very brief retirement, Maitland has been involved with Oban Saints for almost thirty years showing a rare but greatly appreciated level of commitment which will be sadly missed.
Following the presentation the club held a race night and raffle in aid of Club funds which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Event organiser, Ross Maitland, extended grateful thanks to all those who contributed raffle prizes and sponsored the various horse races. In revealing a final total raised of £3,375 Maitland also thanked race organisers Sandy Rokitta, Harry McMaster and Hannah Rokitta, hosts The View and all those who contributed so heavily on the night to give the club funds such a welcome boost.
Comments