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The Tilehurst End Podcast: Christmas Award Winners 2015

Eight awards were up for grabs at our Tilehurst End Podcast Christmas Special last night, find out who won what below.

Sadly this venue wasn't available to us on Monday night....
Sadly this venue wasn't available to us on Monday night....
Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Each award was voted on by our nine panelists present at The Spread Eagle for our Christmas Podcast recording, with Westie also being used as a tiebreaker vote with our 10th ballot via email. Here's who scooped what.

Player of the Year

Previous winners: Alex McCarthy (2013), Jordan Obita (2014)

Nominated: Chris Gunter, Oliver Norwood, Adam Federici

Winner: Oliver Norwood

Strong support for the Reading midfielder who battled back from being in and out of the side in early 2015 to become a key cog in the side.

*****

Most Improved Player

Previous winners: Jordan Obita (2013), Jake Cooper (2014)

Nominated: Aaron Tshibola, Nick Blackman, Adam Federici, Chris Gunter, Oliver Norwood, Anton Ferdinand

Winner: Nick Blackman

Again plenty of backing for Blackman who went from bench warmer to top scorer in the space of mere weeks.

******

The 'Hal Robson-Kanu' Award For Underachievement

Previous winner: Hal Robson-Kanu (2013 & 2014)

Nominated: Jordan Obita, Matej Vydra, Michael Hector, Garath McCelary, Alex Pearce, Lucas Piazon

Winner: Jordan Obita

Jordan has gone from winning most improved (2013) to Player of the Year (2014) and now back down to Underachiever. Far from a unanimous vote here with sadly lots of candidates having strong cases to replace two-time winner Robson-Kanu, who failed to receive a nomination!

*****

Golden Moment

Previous winner: Academy Success Story (2014)

Nominated: Wembley appearance, Bradford win

Winner: Bradford win

Two big favourites here with our panel split between the joy of reaching Wembley and the actual experience of being there, in a narrow decision it was the quarter-final win which took the honours.

*****

Worst Moment

Previous winner: Birmingham 6-1 Reading (2014)

Nominated: Pitch invasion after Bradford, Arsenal winner at Wembley, Losing 1-0 after Wembley to Birmingham

Winner: Arsenal winner at Wembley

Sadly there was a clear winner here as Adam Federici's howler left a lasting impression on the panel.

*****

Comedy Moment

Previous winner: Burnley pitch invasion (2014)

Nominated: The new club song, Lady Sasima being drowned out by Leeds fans, Pudding's cartwheels during the Bradford game, Al-Habsi/Bond in general...

Winner: The new club anthem

Not much more to be said here!

*****

The 'Pavel Pogrebnyak' Most Missed Reading Player

New award

Nominated: Adam Federici, Alex Pearce, Pavel Pogrebnyak

Winner: Adam Federici

In a spur of the moment decision after lamenting The Pog's departure, a new award was created to recognise the most missed player who'd left the club during 2015. While the award is named after him, the big Russian still lost out to Adam Federici.

*****

Breakout Prediction

Previous winners: Royston Drenthe (2013), Dominic Samuel (2014)

Nominated: Jonathan Bond, Rowan Liburd, Tariqe Fosu, Aaron Kuhl, Paolo Hurtado, Jake Cooper

Winner: Jonathan Bond

It was a close decision but the Reading goalkeeper just pipped winger Tariqe Fosu to the award. We'd like to congratulate Mr Bond but given the record of our last two winners, he might well try and turn this one down!

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So those were our picks and you can hear all the reasons and arguments for each on The Tilehurst End Podcast Christmas Special which you can download right now.