Fleetwood Town midfielder Jimmy Ryan wins player of the year gong

The fans were asked to vote for their player of the year, young player of the year and goal of the season this week.

Voting closed at 12pm today and the club have announced that Ryan has won the annual award for the 2015/16 season, Ashley Hunter has won the young player of the year gong and Bobby Grant’s strike against Crewe on the final day of the season was picked as goal of the season.

Ryan joined the Cod Army last summer from Chesterfield and has been an integral part of Town’s side as they retained their League One status with a 2-0 win over Crewe at Highbury earlier this month.

The midfielder battled through the final few games of the campaign with a broken toe and says it is an honour to win the award.

He said: “It’s always nice to be recognised by your own supporters because every player steps out on to the pitch to impress their fans.

“I’ve enjoyed playing in front of the Cod Army this season and they’ve been great with me. It’s an honour to win this award.

“The season obviously didn’t go the way everyone wanted it to go, but the longer the season went on the aim of staying up became bigger.

“Personally I think I had a good season. Obviously it’s not nice to say that when you’ve just stayed up but I tried my best and felt I played pretty well for the majority of games.

“Nobody wants to go through what we went through last season again, so next year we’ve really got to hit the ground running straight from pre-season.

“I’m hoping we’ll be able to learn a lot from last season because we had a young team. They’ll realise what it’s like in League One now and that you have to fight for everything.”

Hunter beat full-back Amari’i Bell, Tyler Forbes and Nick Haughton to the young player of the season prize after scoring seven times in 28 appearances for Steven Pressley’s side.

Four of top scorer Grant’s 11 goals were on the goal of the year shortlist and it is no surprise that his left-footed screamer that helped retain Town’s League One status on the final day against Crewe won the gong.

The goal all but relegated Blackpool and former Pool player Grant who says the Blackpool fans jeered him when he came off in the 0-0 derby game wants the Pool fans to watch his winning goal.

He said: “I had a lot of time and I just concentrated on connecting with it well. Lucky for me, it has flown into the net.

“I did not pay too much attention to Blackpool but someone just said ‘how does it feel to help relegate them?’ and I don’t take any personal pride but the way the fans jeered me a couple of weeks ago when I came off the pitch. I’d like them to watch that goal.”