Awards For Newcastle Trio

By Dan King - Newcastle United Club Reporter

Newcastle pair Sammy Ameobi and Adam Armstrong were among the winners at the Sport Newcastle Annual Dinner on Monday evening.

Ameobi won the Wor Jackie award at the event - the 36th year it has been held - while Academy starlet Armstrong was presented with the Jack Hixon award at Newcastle Civic Centre.

Completing a Magpies hat-trick was Neil Winskill, Football Development Manager for the Newcastle United Foundation, who won the Stan Calvert Award for Coaching.

He said: "I am delighted to have won this prestigious Sport Newcastle award and to follow in the footsteps of some outstanding coaches who have won previously.

"I have been very lucky to have been given wonderful opportunities by Newcastle City Council, Newcastle United Foundation and Newcastle United Academy and I am very grateful to all of them.

"I have also had some fantastic mentors who have guided and encouraged me along the way. I was lucky to have John Carver as my coach at Newcastle when I was in the youth team many moons ago.

"He has proven how hard work, dedication and ambition can take you far in football and is a great inspiration to aspiring local coaches like myself. I look forward to continuing my work at Newcastle United Foundation over the coming years and developing my coaching skills even further to help the players at this club."

Previous winners of the Wor Jackie award include Andy Carroll, Kazenga LuaLua and Peter Ramage while Adam Campbell won the Jack Hixon award in 2011.

Ameobi - currently on loan at Middlesbrough - has been regularly involved at first-team level this term while Armstrong, who recently turned 16, has broken into the under-18s side and been capped twice by England at under-16 level.