The Tilehurst End At The Football Blogging Awards

Managerial mayhem always seems to accompany Tilehurst End related meetups. Last year saw Nigel Adkins get the boot just minutes before our TTE Podcast Christmas Special was due on the air and this year saw half our editorial team Manchester bound for the Football Blogging Awards as Steve Clarke did the hokey cokey over the Fulham job.

Still, such drama couldn't stop our hearty crew of five including Jonny, Wimb, BucksRoyal, Olly and Becka from descending upon Traford's Hotel Football, mere yards away from Old Trafford to see if we'd pick up the award for Best Established Blog in the fourth running of the awards.

As you've probably gathered by now, we didn't actually manage to scoop the award as we were beaten in the judges voting by The Football Pink and on the fans vote by Indian based Goalden Times. Both are fantastic websites and worthy winners and that was the general theme of the evening as we got to know and learn about some amazing websites, writers and contributors... oh and Stan Collymore, he was there too.

While The Tilehurst End may have failed to win an award there was deserved recognition for our SB Nation chums Barca Blaugranes who scooped best club blog, one of a number of international sites to receive recognition.

Despite not bringing home any silverware (or glassware in the case of this year's prizes) it was still a cracking night that included a pie & chips buffet, a generous helping of free Carlsberg and a few odd bits and bobs on the tables for us to take home.

However the undisputed highlight of the evening came when former Liverpool midfielder John Barnes took to the stage for an impromptu rendition of Rapper's Delight....

All that remains to be said is a big thank you to everyone who voted for us to get a nomination. This website is made up entirely of unpaid volunteers and it's little nods like this that do help spur you on to put that extra bit of work in and try to make this website the very best it can be.

Finally let's just remember that while we didn't win, we finished higher than any Swindon or Oxford blog out there ;)