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In the end, just a single point separated Reading and Southampton; the Berkshire club's astounding run of form from January built very much on their being a team and not a collection of individuals and Adam Le Fondre's thrilling brace deciding the April summit meeting. Either could have been worthy winners of this award – Reading for overcoming the loss of key players Shane Long and Matt Mills and Southampton for negotiating the jump in class so effortlessly.

In the end, just a single point separated Reading and Southampton; the Berkshire club's astounding run of form from January built very much on their being a team and not a collection of individuals and Adam Le Fondre's thrilling brace deciding the April summit meeting. Either could have been worthy winners of this award – Reading for overcoming the loss of key players Shane Long and Matt Mills and Southampton for negotiating the jump in class so effortlessly.

Of all the categories in this year's awards, the most clear cut winner was Rickie Lambert. The barrel chested scouser swept all before him in 2011-12 and how heartening it was to see this 30 year old veteran of Edgeley Park and Spotland so dominate the division. The parallels with Grant Holt have oft been drawn and no wonder – Lambert has every chance of matching the Norwich man's achievements.

A couple of the nominees for this year's best young player – Jordan Rhodes and Matt Phillips – have been so well tracked by the blogosphere that any further attempt to describe their abilities is probably about as welcome as the sight of the Cornish national flag on the Olympic Torch Relay. Some of our other suggestions have perhaps been less heralded, though.

The list of nominees was long for the second in our eponymous yearly awards. Joe Mason, a regular starter and scorer for Cardiff; Kevin Nolan, hardly cheap, but still value for money; Rhoys Wiggins, who's developed into by far and away the best left-back in League 1 over the course of the season after Charlton had snaffled him for a modest fee; and Crawley's quick and dirty turnover of Tyrone Barnett were all heralded as good pieces of business up and down the leagues.

For our penultimate award it's difficult, as ever, to overlook those managers who have steered their team to either a championship or promotion winning season. Indeed, despite his irritating histrionics and basic unpleasantness, Paolo di Canio took a previously dismal Swindon back up to League 1 at the first time of asking against a backdrop of tragic personal circumstances and, should he stick it out in Wiltshire, his side should be competitive in 2012-13.

This year's award for Best Ground just has to go to Brighton's AMEX. The wait may have been long and tortuous for the Seagulls but their new stadium is a strong addition to the 72's roster. It does have its criticisms: architecturally, it perhaps shares a little too much in common with the Starship Enterprise and the train ride back into town has been fraught with stress on some occasions, but overall the AMEX has delighted far more supporters than not with its clever use of space under the stands; local beers and pies; green credentials; padded seats and friendlier-than-average.

Brighton have basically been immune to any sort of criticism for a couple of years now. Their League 1 team of 2010-11 was wondrous; they're gradually becoming one of the UK's foremost community clubs; the easy transition last season from the Withdean to Falmer was the kind of move that the majority of football supporters will only get to realise in their imaginations .

Despite our claims to unbiased coverage on this website, it can be difficult – sometimes – to think independently of our individual hues. Awarding Plymouth Argyle – my own team – with the best fans award this year is such a case, although we'd argue that it's on good grounds. Pretty much everyone, by now, should be cognisant of what a traumatic time it's been for all those attached to the Football League's most westerly club.

The nominations for this year's biggest disappointment were peppered with under performing strikers although our Cumbrian correspondent John McGee decided not to continue his anti-Jordan Rhodes tirade by opting for Matt Tubbs instead. Having starred previously for Salisbury, the Crawley man returned to Wessex in January but managed only one goal for Bournemouth, despite a hefty fee.

Spanning our coverage to three divisions would always present problems when deciding upon this season's best team. Just as the WBA, IBF and WBC versions of international boxing competed for eminence in the 1980s, Queen's Park Rangers, Chesterfield and Brighton and Hove Albion possess equal claims to be the top canines thirty or so years on.

There are compensations that come with a tumble down the divisions. While Championship fans must largely contend with a sequence of out of town meccano sheds, visits to Frankie and Benny's and repeated attempts to negotiate those ubiquitous metal railings that align our national dual carriageways, League 2 in particular can throw up some pleasingly traditional sensations.

Last year, the comments section in this category combusted at the suggestion that QPR's Celtic aping green and white away kit was the best of the 144 or so outfits on offer to choose from. A day later, we were engulfed in yet more hot water when citing ignorance of tradition as a reason to dislike Southampton's Peruvian impression.

2011-12 was torrid for the blogs. Two trailblazing club websites, Viva Rovers and Boy from Brazil called it a day and the circumstances behind these closures made a significant impact, provoking a serious amount of existential, ‘why do we do this?' mutterings. Then, just a fortnight ago, Ben Mayhew decided to discontinue his Greenwich Gull site although he will remain active via his Experimental 361 persona.

In January, Lloyd conducted a thorough overview of the loan system calling for a 5 point plan to lead to fairer competition. In 2010-11, Craig Bellamy's spell at Cardiff seemed grotesque given the way Manchester City continued to pay his wages and that was just one example of a number of transformative deals carried out in recent times.

It will come as no surprise that the words ‘simply' and ‘astonishing' were used by several different contributors independently of one another in reference to Paul Lambert's stewardship at Carrow Road. It's a kind of rags to riches story that's been done to death, of course. Indeed, in trying to sum the past two years, which have seen Lambert pick Norwich up by the scruff and build a mentally

Our votes in this most storied of categories were split evenly and many of the usual characters cropped up. Grant Holt, so hearteningly wonderful in this year of Canary yellow, will be looking back on his days as a definitive journeyman and Singapore leaguer with disbelief and Scott Sinclair's play off heroics confirmed an ability to link wideside flair with end product.

For the simple reason that we think the Seagulls would have been less likely to stroll to promotion like they did without him, Elliott Bennett takes this year's Young Player award. Of course, the man of the protruding tongue has since caved in to Paul Lambert's advances but given the Canaries' rising star, who can really blame the lad?

There's a whole other article that could be be written on the dynamic between Stockport County and Sale Sharks, but for the purposes of this award we'll focus on the pitch at Edgeley Park. Plenty of football clubs share grounds with those amateur gents of the oval ball, Reading and Wycombe to name but two, and at points those playing surfaces may suffer from the sheer amount of game time

Darren Bent firing over so disastrously at Wembley a fortnight ago will have provided Charlton Athletic fans with only minor consolation. But an alarmingly awful season on the pitch still does little to detract from the match day experience at the Valley. At a community club, those long years of crumbling terraces as the ground lay dormant in the Eighties are now banished to memory, and the new

What makes a good day out? Three points would do nicely for a start, even in Dagenham, but other variables might range from a particularly memorable chant to the discovery of cracking pub in the shadow of the ground (more to come on that later in the summer on this site...). This year, the award goes to a trip that happened to provide positive results in two of those criteria for this very

Regular readers of these pages will know that we embrace tradition. Identikit all seater stadia and the "it began in 1992" mentality are not for us. As far as kits are concerned, West Bromwich Albion's current neglect of the green and yellow stripes offends, and Manchester City should always sport Milanese style away from home.

By a nose, Scunthorpe United take this year's Best Fans Award. Last season, the gong went to Pride Park for Derby's 29,207 average gate, "a freak of nature" according to my co-editor Lanterne Rouge. The Iron may not have enjoyed the same kind of footfall, but their Keep Scunthorpe Standing Campaign, championed by the Football Supporters' Federation, attracted interest and support from across the

Given that this year's awards involved a six man panel nominating across three leagues of twenty four, there was bound to be divergence in opinion but in the Bargain Buy category we also encountered a further dilemma: what, 'in these challenging times', constitutes a good deal? He spent a little time at Brighton during 2009-10 but the gratis signing of Iñigo Calderón, unattached after a long

Like Achilles' ankles or Steffi Graf's backhand, Swansea City's weakness over the past few seasons of approximate excellence has been all too obvious. Jason Scotland was the key fulcrum for a time, but the goals for column has rarely been a totalizer at the Liberty. That all ended this Spring when Brendan Rodgers - he of the Big League contacts - took a drive down Fulham Broadway and came back

Picking a favourite football kit is an endeavour not too far removed from naming one's favourite dictator – an aberration here, a crime against humanity there, writes John McGee. Our motley band have stepped forth in an attempt to split the Pol Pots from the VI Lenins in this year's bunch. As with most votes there has been no clear winner so the arbiter has been the author of the article.

It's perhaps unfair to blame all the miseries of one club on one man, and Kris Boyd's improvement in fortunes on swapping the red of Teesside for Trentside only heaps further ignominy on Project Strachan; but the disjunct between the reputation of a man with 174 goals plundered north of Hadrian's Wall and the miserable nature of his performances for Boro was startling.

Of course ‘crime' is an emotive word – not least in the current climate where ‘innocent ‘til proven guilty' is, perhaps rightly, followed to the nth degree as a principle. Hence, events of February 8 proved that a certain Serb is by no means a tax evader although he'll be grateful that no members of our judging panel were called to jury service that day.

It's awards time again. Leading up to a Euro 2012-induced hiatus for The Two Unfortunates, we'll be proclaiming our gongs for 2011-12 based on the opinions of our writers; watchers of football in all three divisions of the Football League. It's fitting to note then, that our Best Manager of a year ago was Paul Lambert, now poised to take the next possibly upward step in his coaching career, while Brighton and Hove Albion nabbed our Best Team award and Adel Taarabt won the Best Player Accolade.

Possibly the closest category to call, this split our voters - divided by micro and macro concerns. At the latter level, the usual suspects are there: the primary interviewee on Lord Sugar Tackles Football, some oval ball proponents from the South Manchester borders and all those associated with the downfall of a Green Army from Devonshire.

The second burst of TTU Awards will be rolled out from this Tuesday, with our site having reached the giddy age of two years old. Last time out, some men in Tangerine dominated the voting, with Charlie Adam winning a tight battle for Player of the Year over Graham Dorrans - an outcome perhaps justified by subsequent events.