Inverness Caledonian Thistle Women present end-of-season awards after wrapping up Championship North season with two-goal win over Westdyke at Caledonian Stadium
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle's women's team presented their end-of-season awards after completing their Championship North campaign at the weekend.
It was a pleasing end to what has been a disappointing season overall, beating Westdyke 2–0 at the Caledonian Stadium with goals from Kirsty Deans and Kayleigh Mackenzie to finish fourth – below pre-season hopes of a push for promotion.
There was added reason to celebrate after the full time whistle, though, as the performances and progress made by individuals in the squad were recognised.
Mackenzie and Deans both left the ground with extra hardware, with the latter in particular reaping the rewards of an impressive campaign on a personal level.
Deans, Caley Thistle captain, was voted both player of the year and players' player of the year, a mark of the influence she has on the side.
Mackenzie finished as the side's top scorer, while two of the younger members of the squad were also rewarded for their hard work over the last year.
Tina Kelly won the young player of the year award, while Abbey Ross claimed the most improved prize after forcing her way into the starting line-up on a regular basis.
"Kayleigh obviously speaks for herself," Inverness manager Karen Mason said.
"She had a flying start to the season, she was scoring three or four goals a time, sometimes off the bench, then had a quieter mid-season before starting to bang them in again.
"She was actually closely contested this year with Hannah Gordon and Kirsty Deans – I guess the eight goals against Stonehaven helped in that.
"We've almost run out of superlatives to describe how Abbey played in games. Her work rate, her ability, her ability to link up and her game intelligence is beyond her years really.
"Anything we've asked her to do, she has taken on at the first time of asking and implemented it into games.
"For her it has been a great year, and I can see big things coming for her again hopefully next year.
"Tina is just an absolute bundle of energy. Her running and battling, I've never seen her once duck out of a 50/50 challenge, and her creativity and wing play has been something really refreshing that we've not had for a while.
"She's a natural left-footer too, and she's the only one in the squad that possesses that, so she's been a really unique player for us this year and definitely one that defenders have feared being up against because she will just go up for 90 minutes and won't give them a minute to breathe.
"She's been phenomenal, and I just hope to keep seeing improvements from her as well just to add the final bits to her game.
"Kirsty Deans is just captain fantastic. She leads by example in every game, she is the only voice that we have sometimes which is desperately needed.
"She puts in a performance, she will run every position all over the pitch – she's a real leader, she leads by example, and if she's not there s he's a notable miss, so she's someone that we definitely don't want to go too many games without."
