Five star vote closing on Monday!

The successor to Whitby Town's Dale Hopson as the 2018 'EVO-STIK NPL Show Fans' Player of the Year' and two runners-up will be unveiled at the seventh Northern Premier League Player of the Year Awards on Sunday 15 April.

The deadline to vote in the online poll for five finalists - Julio Arca, Liam Hearn, Jordan Hulme, Lee Shaw and Nathan Valentine - is a minute to midnight on Easter Monday.

Fans have been voting for the five stars representing South Shields, Basford United, Altrincham, Grantham Town and Scarborough Athletic respectively since they received the greatest number of nominations and were chosen by a panel of representatives from all 68 NPL clubs and media covering the competition.

Taking place at the Brooklands Holiday Inn near Barnsley, the accolades for the EVO-STIK League's historic 50th anniversary 2017-18 campaign will be handed out by Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder. As well as the favourites with the fans, Wilder will also honour a 'Player of the Year' and 'Young Player of Year' in each of the NPL's three divisions and the players chosen in three 'Teams of the Year' by the competition's management teams in an online poll.

Still unique in the top levels of Non-League Football with the spotlight on the competition's star players after the winners are chosen by their managers and fans, the event will also see the next generation of stars coming through the Northern Premier League Football Academy recognised on stage for the third year running by ex-Oxford United boss Wilder.

As guest of honour at the awards, 50-year-old Blades boss Wilder will be following in the footsteps of World Cup referee Webb in 2012, Manchester City and Everton legend Joe Royle, former Wales boss Brian Flynn, Mansfield Town manager Steve Evans, England C manager Paul Fairclough and former Welsh international Dean Saunders last season.

Originally the brainchild of former Manchester City keeper and NPL stalwart Alan Ogley, the ceremony is also set to be broadcast live on Facebook for the second year running as the NPL's marks its milestone season.

As part of the ongoing celebrations, fans have also been nominating the competition's top bosses of the last five decades since February. Like the top 100 players who they also voted for this season, they'll be honoured in Barnsley before being included in the new book charting the competition's proud history.

Entitled '50 Glorious Seasons - A History of the Northern Premier League 1968-2018’ and currently being written by the EVO-STIK League's official historian Dominic McKenzie, the book is due out at the end of the season.

To vote for your top managers of the last 50 years and the five finalists for the 2018 fans' accolade, click here: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NPLSHOWFINAL.

The usual rules of one vote per fan, player or official apply. Anyone voting multiple times will see all their ballots removed.

Images courtesy of @evostikleague/Twitter