1. get the awards right
This is the moment everyone’s actually been waiting for. The awards are the heart of any end of season do, and the difference between a memorable night and a flat one often comes down to how much thought goes into them.
The classics are classics for a reason. Player of the Season, Top Scorer, Manager’s Player, Players’ Player. These categories matter to people. Make the votes count, announce them properly, and give each one a moment rather than rattling through them at speed.
Beyond the standards, the awards that tend to land best are the ones with a bit of personality:
🤩 Goal of the Season: If anyone filmed it, even better.
🫣 Worst Miss: You know there’s one. The culprit probably knows too.
👏 Most Improved Player: A good one for younger or newer members of the club.
🥄 The Wooden Spoon: For the lad who gave you absolutely nothing all season. Handle with care, land with love.
⭐️ Unsung Hero (AKA Clubman of the year): The one who’s always there, always reliable, never gets the credit. This one matters more than people think.
Keep the speeches short. Give people a moment to react. And if you’re handing out physical trophies or medals, sort them in advance! Nothing deflates an awards night like ‘we’ll get them to you in a few weeks’.
2. pick a venue that knows how to host!
The venue sets the tone. Get it right and the night looks after itself. Get it wrong and you spend the evening apologising for the noise, the lack of seating, or the bar that stops serving at nine.
Think about what your squad actually needs: enough space for everyone to be in the same room, somewhere that can accommodate a bit of noise, a bar that doesn’t need a thirty-minute queue.
Private function rooms work well for groups because they give you control of the space. You can run the awards without competing with a packed pub, the speeches are actually audible, and people stay together rather than drifting off to different corners of a venue.
Book early. End of season falls in a busy window and the good spots go quickly. If you’ve got a rough date in mind, get it locked in before you start chasing the squad for availability.
