TREVOR CARSON last night took home three honours at the Hartlepool United player of the year awards.

The goalkeeper, signed last summer from Cheltenham Town, has been a model of consistency this season.

Carson, 28, with aspirations of making the Northern Ireland squad for the European Championships this summer, won both the overall player of the year award and the players’ honour. He was also recognised for his regular work in the community.

The top three for both the overall award and players’ honour was identical: Matthew Bates in third, Billy Paynter in second and Carson on top.

Skipper and top scorer Paynter took home the away player of the year accolade. He, however, missed out to Lewis Hawkins for the goal of the season gong for his first goal of two he bagged in the 3-1 win at Barnet in March.

Adam Jackson, 21, on loan from Middlesbrough, was named the young player of the year after moving to Victoria Park last November and making 32 appearances. Boss Craig Hignett hopes to add the defender to his ranks on a permanent basis next season and he will make his final outing for Pools at Plymouth on Saturday.

But former Sunderland prospect Carson, who missed the first three months of the season with a toe injury suffered in training on the eve of the new campaign, took the big honours.

“It’s great to top off what has personally been a very good season for me, it means a lot,’’ he beamed. “I’ve done OK, but to get acknowledgements from the fans and the players who you train with every day is fantastic.

“You see some of the names who have won the award over the years and it’s something to be proud of.

“I missed the first ten weeks of the season through injury and now I’m sat here with some trophies.’’

He added: “To get the award from the lads is fantastic, something I’ve never had before. To have that is very special. I want to thank them as well, a great set of lads and you can see that.

“I hope we do stay together as a team, that’s the manager’s choice, but there’s a good squad, a good set of lads and no egos.’’

When asked what his finest stop of many way, he admitted: “Against Stevenage at home, a point-blank header – a save I made when I wondered how I made it. I told my granda all about it and he watched the highlights and he said it wasn’t that good!’’

Last season, Carson won the big award at Cheltenham, as they were relegated from the Football League.

This time around, Pools have been safe from the drop for a few weeks. He recalled: “It was a hard thing relegation, hard to be happy about winning the player of the year award because of the situation. I will have a relegation on my CV, but this is a different feeling. We have stayed up, finished safe and the season could have been a lot worse.

“Me and Nicky Featherstone room together and we expected it to go to the wire. Now we are safe and have been comfortable for a while. It’s a shame we have lost the last few, but even in losing we haven’t been far off.’’

There was award for coach and former skipper Sam Collins, who was named the club’s first Kenny Johnson award for service to the club. He was signed in 2009, made 269 appearances for the club, sitting 24th in the all-time appearance list.

Collins has had two stints as caretaker manager, was first-team coach under Ronnie Moore and is now the club’s development coach.