Izaguirre and Goodwillie claim awards double

04 May 2011 09:00

Celtic full-back Emilio Izaguirre and Dundee United striker David Goodwillie have received an awards double after adding Clydesdale Bank Premier League prizes to their PFA Scotland trophies.

Mixu Paatelainen was also honoured with the SPL manager of the year award despite leaving Kilmarnock last month. Izaguirre was named player of the year while Goodwillie won the young player prize, with a panel of "football experts" agreeing with Scotland's professional footballers.

Paatelainen, who left to take charge of Finland - with Kilmarnock all but qualified for the top six - said: "There have been some famous names who have picked up this trophy before and to be in that list is a great honour. This season there have been loads of fantastic managers in the SPL and I'm over the moon to win this."

Paatelainen added: "We have had a great season at Kilmarnock. We were relegation candidates at the start of the season and we qualified for the top six comfortably and there was even a chance of getting into Europe.

"It's been a really, really positive and enjoyable season because of the players' work rate, their effort and their receptiveness. It's not only me winning this trophy, it's the players and backroom staff and everybody."

Attacking left-back Izaguirre has been a huge success at Celtic Park since moving from Honduras in August last year.

The 24-year-old, who has three years left on his contract, was unable to collect his prize at the SPL's annual dinner in Glasgow as he was in Inverness ahead of Celtic's game against Caley Thistle on Wednesday night.

Goodwillie, 22, claimed the award for the second year running after hitting 16 SPL goals so far.

He said: "It's been a great few days for me. I wasn't really expecting this so I'm just really happy and surprised. It's good that people are still noticing me playing well and that's the only thing I want to concentrate on right now."

Hibernian striker Derek Riordan won goal of the season for his chip against Celtic at Parkhead in September, while Hearts' Marian Kello's fingertip save from Rangers midfielder Steven Davis in October was also recognised.

Source: PA