DARLINGTON midfielder Phil Turnbull was a double winner at the club’s end of the season awards evening on Saturday evening.

At the end of his first season with Quakers after joining from Gateshead, he received the Players’ Player of the Year and the Fans’ Player of the Year accolades.

Turnbull was given a standing ovation at the ceremony, held at the Mercure King’s Hotel, in Darlington, and he said: “Moving to Darlington was the best decision I ever made.”

Striker Lee Gaskell also walked away with a trophy as he won the Goal of the Season contest for his effort scored from the corner of the penalty area against Matlock Town in February.

Over 1,000 votes were cast with Gaskell’s goal one of three by the former Ramsbottom striker in the six-strong shortlist, with strikes Stephen Thompson, Terry Galbraith and Graeme Armstrong all included.

The Darlington FC Supporters Group hold their end of season party at Blackwell Meadows this weekend.

Beginning at 7pm on Saturday, entry is £5 and there are a limited number of tickets available from Quaker Retail in the Dolphin Centre, which is open Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays (10am-1pm).

Entry is free to the sponsors of players’ shirts, and there will be presentations of the signed shirts by the players themselves to their individual sponsors.

Meanwhile, later this month Quakers manager Martin Gray is holding trials for potential first-team players.

Anyone interested is invited to attend trials taking place at Longfield School on Saturday, May 21, starting at 10am.

To register an interest, triallists must send an e mail with their cv to manager Gray at commercial@darlingtonfc.org, by Thursday, May 19.

* Former Darlington manager Mark Cooper is expected to be soon unveiled as Forest Green Rovers manager over having left Notts County after only ten games in charge.

He failed to trigger a predetermined points tally required to guarantee a contract offer from chairman Ray Trew, with the Magpies ending his tenure with a 5-0 defeat to Carlisle on Saturday.

Forest Green will be in the National League play-off final at Wembley against Grimsby Town on Sunday.