After being voted Saints player of the year in the Daily Echo pol, Alex McCarthy has followed it up with two more awards to make it a hat trick of trophies.

At Christmas Alex McCarthy's long term future at Southampton Football Club looked unclear, having just turned 28 he had yet to make a Premier League appearance for the club since his arrival in the summer of 2016 and his only two appearances for the first team had come in August 2016 in the EFL Cup, even the fact that he had spent much of this time injured was not any consolation.

But the only glimmer of hope was the form of Fraser Forster and the Saints defence, Forster could find no consistency and was lacking in confidence, he needed to be pulled out of the the firing line and after the drubbing at Spurs he was.

Since then McCarthy has done everything asked of a keeper and this resulted in him being voted the Daily Echo player of the year and now following up with the club's own poll as voted for by the fans and also the player's player of the year to make it a hat trick of trophies.

McCarthy's record was not a lot different to Forster in terms of goals conceded, indeed Forster made many more saves than McCarthy in his half of the season, but what won it for the former Palace and Reading keeper was his performances in the run in when he made several crucial saves in the final minutes of the final three games.

Likewise the goal of the season prize went to a goal that was unspectacular but arguably the most vital, Manolo Gabbiadini's close range strike at Swansea in the penultimate game, this was far from being the best goal, indeed Sofiane Boufal and even Mario Lemina might argue that for their efforts both against West Brom, but in terms of what it ultimately meant there could be no arguing.

Terry Paine’s President’s Choice Award this year went to defender Jack Stephens, with the centre-back being honoured for his performances and commitment to the team.

Young Player of the Year went to Jake Vokins, while Kiera Skeels was named Girls’ Regional Talent Club Player of the Year.

Additionally, midfielder Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was honoured with a new award given on behalf of Katharina Liebherr for a player who has made notable strides in their game and had a major impact on the season.

This was not a season to really celebrate, McCarthy aside their are few other players who can truly claim that they have had a good consistent season and that is where the crux of the problems lay, some of that blame can be laid at the feet of former manager Mauricio Pellegrino for his tactics, but until the last four games we were pretty much a team playing well below it's own standards and capabilities.

However there is enough quality in the squad to enable us to trim the squad and add some quality signings, then we can march on.

Photo: Action Images

patred added 09:47 - May 15 without any shadow of a date Alex McCarthy deserves the praise he is getting. We were all sniffy about him at first, but now he is be talked about as Englands No1. De Geo is the only keeper in the EPL that rivals his form. Even Jack Butland has looked inferior to him.
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SonicBoom added 11:12 - May 15 McCarthy has been great. I still have kittens when there is a cross into our box due to our sub-standard central defence, but AM does come out and punch well rather than Forsters impression of a telegraph pole rooted to his line.
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Butty101 added 11:32 - May 15 Katharina Liebherr award should be renamed - Next player to be sold to Liverpool
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Trojan_Otter added 11:36 - May 15 He deserves it for taking matters into his own hands. Not least against Swansea, flooring Bednarek to get Manolo on. The rest is history.
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Sanguin added 11:38 - May 15 Fantastic contribution, but for me this epitomises football fans' short memories.
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SaintBrock added 13:06 - May 15 Just about sums us up this lousy year. It's a bloody disgrace that a goalkeeper would win this award. What does that say about the rest of our team or the judgement of fans. Two or three good matches and the award is yours!
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underweststand added 21:02 - May 15 Nearly all the squad have shown in-and-out form this season, but even if we have conceded goals, a lot can be put down to individual errors by defenders, whereas AM has come in and made some great saves at key moments. IF he stays ....and Forster goes (?) who will be the no.2 ? Harry Lewis had a fair season at Dundee Utd, and Jack Rose has put in some fine displays for thr U23s, but the fact remains that most Prem.sides have 1 , if not 2 international keepers on their staff. Jack Stephens ' was thrown in at the deep end after VvD's departure, and although he's not the finished article by a long shot, he shows courage and determination -and has an eye for goals, too. Jack together with Hoedt and Bednarek may be the backbone of our defence next season, and an addition (like Mawson ) would create competition for the CB spots. VvD has gone, Gardos was never in the running and rumours about Yoshida moving to play in the Middle East (?) would create even spaces in the backline.

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highfield49 added 17:57 - May 16 I think it's fair to say that without McCarthy we would now be relegated and that seems a reasonable basis for him to win his well earned trophies. Whilst other players made significant contributions elsewhere on the the pitch he ensured that our goal difference gave us the edge over several clubs in the drop zone. Slightly off topic but I can't understand the enthusiasm for Mawson to be signed. Whenever I've seen him play he has done little to inspire confidence. If a central defender is going to be brought in surely it has to be quality rather than another "one for the future"? Only my opinion but I think we could do a lot better.

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