Award's curse buried under goal glut!

Winning October’s Macron Performance of the Month Award has certainly done Ryman North Heybridge Swifts no harm.

Instead of being hit by one of football's ‘awards curses’ and seeing a dip in form since being named as one of Macron’s three winners at the start of November, the second placed Swifts have been scoring goals and winning games for fun.

Just ask Swifts skipper Lee Kersey who is pictured collecting a glass trophy marking the club’s achievement from Ryman League Director Craig Johnson on Saturday after their fifth league win on the spin, a 3-1 victory over Aveley. Before that, he’d led his teammates to a 5-0 win at Brentwood, 7-2 victory at home to Woxham, 7-0 triumph at home to Erith & Belvedere and perhaps most impressively, a 2-1 win at leaders VCD Athletic.

Heroics in the FA Cup and FA Trophy dominated the latest Macron awards with Ryman Premier AFC Hornchurch and Ryman South Folkestone Invicta getting the judges’ vote alongside Heybridge in Ryman North for the upsets they caused.

Swifts secured their first accolade of the campaign when they turned giant-killers in October and knocked Conference South title challengers Bromley out of the FA Cup with a 2-1 win at Hayes Lane in the Third Qualifying Round. Goals from Kevin Dobinson and Aaron Greene were enough in the end to see off Bromley despite the Kent side pulling a goal back to leave Heybridge clinging on in a pulsating finale.

The Premier Division’s honour went to the Urchins for their 6-1 home win over Wealdstone in the FA Cup's Third Qualifying Round while Folkestone Invicta took the Ryman South laurels for their 2-0 success over former FA Trophy winners Kingstonian in the competition's First Qualifying Round.

Like all Macron Performance of the Month Award winners, both clubs have also been presented with glass trophies marking their achievements by representatives of the Ryman League and sponsors Macron.

Image courtesy of Sam Chaplin