Goal scoring heroes Padraig Amond and Jamille Matt have won the Disabled Supporter Associations Player of the Month Awards for the first two months of this season.
Amond bagged August’s award with three goals and three assists whilst his strike partner, Matt, scored four in September including a brace against Chelsea U21s. The players received their trophies from Claire and Kian Faulkner yesterday.
Kian was the inspiration for the club’s Disabled Supporters Association, which was set up by Claire and her husband Colin in 2015, after encountering a few issues attending games as a family.
In the summer, Colin stepped down as the Chairman after three years in order to become an integral part of the matchday operations to ensure disabled supporters visiting Rodney Parade. Therefore, the DSA is going through a transitional stage and now sees Claire at the helm.
During the last couple of months, the group have found it difficult to recruit some new volunteers and therefore have not been able to host their annual Children’s Halloween Party.
Claire commented: “We haven’t been as active as we would have liked at the start of this season, but we are determined to continue what we set out to do and help the club improve the matchday experience for supporters whether they have a physical or unseen impairment”.
Last year the DSA’s Player of the Month award, gave the group an opportunity to raise awareness of the group's work and also of various health related issues that some of our supporters live with. It also helped the group better understand a little more with how they can have a positive impact on supporters attending Newport County AFC matches both at home and on the road.
You can join up to support the DSA via their Membership Survey with just a few details, this will then allow you to be drawn for the opportunity to present the trophies to winners starting with October’s award.
The DSA Player of the Month has been sponsored by Hannah and Tony Cook landlord and lady on behalf of the Dodger Pub for the 2018/19 season. The pub has been supporting the club for a while now with many of our supporters enjoying meals, a drink and socialising before and after matches and we thank them for their continued support.
October’s Player of the Month vote is now open and can be found here and will close on Saturday November 3rd. To be in with a chance to present the trophy don’t forget to join the DSA