New Year honours for fair play champs

Ashton United, Farsley AFC and Leek Town will collect the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League’s final Fair Play Awards of 2013 after being unveiled as December’s best behaved sides.

Like all winners of the monthly competition to reward fair play and sportsmanship, each club will be presented with an inscribed certificate to mark their achievement and a bottle of Pol Roger Champagne to toast their New Year accolade after being named on Monday.

First Division South title-chasers Leek Town will be the first to be honoured this weekend, League Representative Mark Ogley making the presentation to the Blues before they take on Lincoln United at Harrison Park on Saturday. Lee Casswell’s side also won October’s award and are currently second in the overall table behind season-to-date leaders Brigg Town. The Blues topped December’s fair play table with a disciplinary average of 1.05 after collecting two cautions in four league outings.

The Evo-Stik NPL’s Respect Manager Phil Bradley is set to make the presentation to Premier Division winners Ashton United before they host Buxton at Hurst Cross on Wednesday 8 January. Joint managers Paul Phillips and Steve Halford saw their side win their first fair play award of the campaign and climb to second on the overall table behind Skelmersdale United after recording a disciplinary average of 0.67 for four cautions in six games.

The Villagers head into 2014 as overall fair play leaders in First Division North after winning the award for the second successive month, two cautions in five outings giving Neil Parsley’s side a disciplinary average of 1.04. The last of the trio to be honoured, League Representative Mark Ogley will be at Throstle Nest on Saturday 11 January to make the presentation before they kick off against New Mills.

To view the latest Fair Play Tables click on the 'League Info' button on the home page and then the 'Inventory' button in the downloads section.