BURTON Albion Chairman Ben Robinson MBE DL looks ahead to this season’s end-of-season awards evening, and shares his thoughts on this year’s potential Hall of Fame inductees.
We’re rapidly approaching the end of the season and while the team are fully focused on getting those important points on the pitch, I’m sure many of you are thinking about your votes for our end-of-season awards night.
There have been some fantastic goals this season that I’m sure will get put forward for Goal of the Season on the night itself. Player of the Season is sure to be hotly contested too and you can now get your votes in for that award right here.
One award that is really intriguing me this year is our Hall of Fame - and you can nominate your choice here. After Darren Stride and Aaron Webster became our first inductees in 2018 and 2019, we saw Bill Townsend, Reg Weston, Dave McAdam and Nobby Hadfield achieve that heralded status in 2021.
The fantastic Phil Annable proudly accepted his place in the Hall of Fame last year and his speech was certainly a highlight.
And there are so many fantastic names from our past that deserve the accolade and acclaim this year – it certainly has had me thinking about who I would love to see in there.
I don’t need to mention how popular the late Simon Redfern was as a player for Burton Albion. Last October marked the 25th anniversary of his tragic passing at just 30 years of age and at the peak of his powers as a player.
Redders played 457 times for us in 11 years. He is, undoubtedly, one of best players to ever pull on a Burton Albion shirt and I’ll never forget the day we found out he had passed.
His impact on our club cannot be overstated and, of course, his older brother Dave was another fantastic servant for the club in the 1980s.
The same is true of Richie Barker and Stan Round. There is a reason so many of you drive past Barker Round Way when arriving at the Pirelli Stadium on a matchday, after all.
Barker and Round were an utterly formidable striking pair. That 1965/66 season, in which they scored a frankly ridiculous 115 goals between them, 59 of them to Stan, powered us to the Southern League Premier Division for the first time.
That Richie could have scored 56 goals in one season and not been named top goalscorer should tell you all you need to know about this partnership!
What a pair of signings from our manager at the time, Peter Taylor – who started with us as a goalkeeper, went on to form one of the greatest managerial partnerships of all time with Brian Clough and surely will have his place in our Hall of Fame before long, too.
In that very same team, you had the wonderfully talented Lindy Delapenha – the first Jamaican-born player to play professional football in England and, in his own right, one of the finest players to ever represent us at the end of what had been a fantastic career.
We have had wonderful times in the recent years, but few will forget the impact that the likes of Redfern, Barker, Round et al had on our fanbase. I look forward to seeing who gets your vote on May 4.