Better late than never!

Arctic weather meant they had to wait nearly a month to pick up February's Jungledrum Fair Play Award but Sheffield's proud manager Ian Whitehorne reckons the accolade was well worth the delay.

The Club were orginally due to collect the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League's First Division South accolade from fair play sponsors Jungledrum back on Saturday March 10 before hosting Newcastle Town. But after the game was postponed and followed by a series of further postponements, they were forced to wait until last Saturday, just two days before Jungledrum's latest winners for March were named - North Ferriby United, Leek Town and Bamber Bridge taking their respective divisional honours.

League Representative Alan Ogley is pictured finally making the presentation to Whitehorne before their 3-0 home win over Kidsgrove Athletic. Like February's best behaved Premier Division side AFC Fylde and First Division North winners Ossett Albion, Sheffield received an inscribed Jungledrum commemorative certificate and a 1.5 litre bottle of Famous Grouse Whiskey courtesy of the sponsors, their reward for coming out on top in a totting up of red and yellow cards divided by the number of Evo-Stik NPL fixtures they'd played. Where clubs are tied on points, marks awarded by referees over the month for Technical Area behaviour are taken into account.

Sheffield won their first fair play accolade of the campaign within weeks of Whitehorne taking charge of the world's oldest club following the resignation of Curtis Woodhouse, quickly making his mark in February as his new charges picked up just four cautions in seven outings. In fact, Sheffield's score of 0.71 was the best across all three Evo-Stik NPL Divisions.

Apart from joking about their wait for recognition and saying how proud they were, Whitehorne also revealed the tough approach behind Sheffield's success. He said: "Was that when everything was snowed off? Its been a long time coming but seriously, it's quite an achievement. I think they [the players] are just enjoying their football, and when they enjoy their football, they become more disciplined. We've told the players about dissent, it's the only thing we don't tolerate, the players get fined quite heavily for dissent. So, they cut that out and they are just as committed, and playing the right way."

Marketing and advertising specialists Jungledrum harness their online expertise to open new income streams for the league's clubs while securing fans money saving deals. The Jungledrum Fair Play Tables are available throughout the season via a hyperlinked logo on the league's official site.

Jungledrum's Lloyd Bantleman said: "Jungledrum is delighted to be associated with the Jungledrum Fair Play award as integrity and fair plays lies at the heart of our business ethos. We are working with clubs across the league to help them develop a measurable income stream that gives their business supporters a fair return on investment with the club."

For more information on Jungledrum and the work they are doing to open new and no risk income streams for Evo-Stik NPL clubs visit: jungledrumdeals.co.uk