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Tuesday, 21 May, 2002, 16:05 GMT 17:05 UK
Coyle takes top player award
John Connolly, Alex Williams, Dick Campbell, Owen Coyle and Gerry Collins
The award winners enjoy their big moment
Former Airdrieonians striker Owen Coyle has been voted player of the year in the Scottish Football League.

The 35-year-old former Republic of Ireland forward had already won the Division One award from his fellow professionals.

His accolades came as some consolation for Coyle, whose former club missed out on promotion from the First Division and then went into liquidation.

Stirling Albion striker Alex Williams overcame a miserable season for his Third Division side to take the Bell's young player of the year award voted on by sports journalists.


The lure of joining Ian at Falkirk was too much
Owen Coyle
But the managers' plaudits have gone, as expected, to the respective champions of three divisions below the Scottish Premier League.

Partick Thistle's John Lambie was Division One manager of the year.

John Connolly, of Queen of the South, was top boss in Division Two.

Brechin City manager Dick Campbell took the Third Division award.

Coyle was top scorer in the SFL, with 27 goals this season.

He has since followed former Airdrie boss Ian McCall to Falkirk as player-coach.

Coyle had been wanted by the consortium hoping to take a new Airdrie into the Third Division next season under manager Sandy Stewart.


He's a great man and manager
Partick assistant Gerry Collins
But, at the Bell's ceremony at the Gleneagles Hotel, he said: "Sandy Stewart is one of my best friends in the game, but the lure of joining Ian at Falkirk was too much.

"I hope Jim Ballantyne and the rest of the people behind the new Airdrie are given that opportunity, but at Falkirk there was also the chance to do the coaching side as well, which appealed to me."

Partick Thistle assistant manager Gerry Collins picked up the award on behalf of Lambie and said: "Four years ago, the situation this club was in means we could easily have been another Airdrie.

"He's a great man and manager and I know, if we finish eleventh next year, he will be a happy man.

"Any club in a dire financial situation only has to look at Partick Thistle now."

Links to more Scotland stories are at the foot of the page.


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