He received his award, from Distillery’s manager Lee Forsythe, at the club’s “Awards’ Night” in the New Grosvenor Stadium Social Club on Saturday night.

Delighted to pick up the coveted-award from the iconic brand, with its unique and important historic connection to the club, Dean now joins a select list of winners;

• 2016-17 Echlinville Player of the Season – Darren Doherty
• 2017-18 Echlinville Player of the Season – Matthew Ferguson
• 2018-19 Dunville’s Player of the Season – Jonah Nicholl
• 2019-20 Dunville’s Player of the Season – Chris Getty
• 2020-21 Dunville’s Player of the Season – no award (Covid-19)
• 2021-22 Dunville’s Player of the Season – Jonah Nicholl
• 2022-23 Dunville’s Player of the Season – Ethan Carry
• 2023-24 Dunville’s Player of the Season – Ryan McNickle
• 2024-25 Dunville’s Player of the Season – Mark McKee

A huge “WELL DONE” again to Dean, the club’s vice-captain, who played at right-back over the season.

And a huge “THANK YOU” to our good friends and sponsors at The Echlinville Distillery, the multi-award winning Northern Ireland distillery based at Rubane, just outside Kircubbin on the Ards Peninsula.

Owner, Shane Braniff, and his team at the Echlinville Distillery have once again supported us generously over the season.

With the weather improving, do consider a visit to the multi-award winning distillery, in a beautiful part of County Down and close to Strangford Lough. A number of our supporters have been and enjoyed the visit – it really is an enjoyable day out. You can find out more about what is going at Echlinville – where Dunville’s and all those other famous award-winning brands are distilled – along with forthcoming Tour and Tipple event dates, here .

In our “RETRO” spread we look back at a 2013 Championship games between the sides. And in our “On this day” feature in addition to looking back at games against Newry Town and Loughgall, we reflect on a cracking 3-3 draw at The Oval in 2009.

The programme – packed as usual with all the regular features, full-colour, including the latest views from Distillery’s manager Lee Forsythe – will be available from Neil Partridge at the turnstiles on Saturday.

We sign off with programme number 12 at the Ballymacash game.

So, for the second month in a row, the Dunville’s Irish Whiskey Player of the Month Award goes to our captain, Jordan Morrison.

Since he returned to us in January he has been consistent week in, week out, no matter what is going on around him.

Well done again Jordan, and given the windy weather on Saturday, this month’s award presentation took place in the relative sanctuary of the boardroom. Distillery manager Lee Forsythe (left) presented Jordan with the much sought-after award, a bottle of Dunville’s 1808 Blended Irish Whiskey, a modern blend of malt, grain and pot still whiskeys.

This coming Saturday is the club’s “Awards Night” (18th April) when Player of the Season, top goal-scorer and other awards are presented in the clubhouse.

And amongst them will be the iconic Dunville’s Player of the Season Award.

We look forward to that and thank Shane Braniff and everyone at Echlinville for generously backing the awards once again.

Spring has sprung in a manner of speaking, and Echlinville Tour and Tipple dates for May and June are now on-line. A visit to the multi-award winning distillery, in a beautiful part of County Down and close to Strangford Lough, is a really enjoyable day out. You can find out more about what is going at at Echlinville – where Dunville’s and all those other famous award-winning brands are distilled – here .

“We are back in our usual format with an added Scandinavian flavour for the visit of our good friends on “Scandis’ Day” “ writes programme editor David Hunter.

“Lee (Forsythe) has looked back at last Friday night’s game and you can read his clear verdict in his manager’s column.

We have a very different (and very interesting) centre-spread this week which I started in September. We are now well into Spring but it’s never too late for a good Spring clean or is it?

You can find out more in a very different “Some light house work” – feel free to read this one with your apron on, duster and mop to hand but if you fear heights maybe not.

In our “On this day” feature we look back at games against Crusaders, H&W Welders and Limavady United and there will be our usual regular club news, matchday squads and visitors piece in the programme well.

And finally, there is good news and bad news regarding the “Spirit of the Eighties”. The bad news is that the programme team are going to have to stretch themselves (yet again) to produce another two programmes. We originally had planned to finish the series on ten or eleven programmes but we will now see all the remaining home games out.

The good news is that our readers – who have been great in their backing this season – will have two more programmes in the next few weeks. Number 11 for the Knockbreda game (18/04), and the following week we end the “Spirit of the Eighties” series with number 12 against Ballymacash.

Neil Partridge will be selling the programmes, just inside the turnstiles, as usual, this Saturday.

It’s “Scandis Day” on Saturday – when we are joined by members of the LDSSC (the Lisburn Distillery Scandinavian Supporters Club) on their annual trip to New Grosvenor Stadium.

Time has flown by once again and we look forward to their visit. The way the date has fallen this year means that we will have Jan Tholin and PB (Peter Bengtsson) with us, and possibly Neil Smith.

All are well known to our supporters so please give them our usual warm welcome on Saturday and catch up with them on what has been happening.

Our great friends have been coming every year (apart from Covid) since 2011.

Among the awards that will be presented on the night is the Oliver Loughnan Player of the Season Award. This trophy was first presented at the end of the 22/23 season after being kindly donated by Susan Loughnan in memory of her husband and our former club director who sadly passed in May 2020.

This award is particularly prestigious as all supporters have an input in the winner.

To submit your vote simply click on the link below, select your choice from the players listed and then hit the “Vote” button at the bottom.

Voting will remain open until 1:00pm on Saturday 11th April and the winner will be announced at the awards night. You can vote for any player who has played 10+ games this season.

Vote Here