HARTLEPOOL UNITED'S Chris Westwood has capped a memorable season by becoming The Northern Echo's Player of the Year.

The 26-year-old defender has been a major part of the club's Third Division promotion success story and his performances have been reflected in our ratings.

Just a few weeks ago Westwood was acknowledged by his fellow professionals when he was named in the League's PFA Team of the Season.

Pool teammate and defensive partner Graeme Lee was also named by the PFA and Lee, who is expected to join former boss Chris Turner at Sheffield Wednesday this summer, is also named in our best XI for this region and he finished runner-up in the individual honours.

Experienced Premiership pair Gary Speed and Gareth Southgate were not far behind the lower league duo - both finishing the season with an average rating of 7.00.

Speed's campaign came to a premature end and he has not played since the clash with Blackburn on March 22 when he suffered his second hernia injury of the season.

But his displays in midfield alongside Kieron Dyer have been a major factor in the Magpies' relatively successful Champions League campaign.

Southgate, meanwhile, may not have had the European stage to impress on with Boro, but he has enjoyed another season of consistency in the top-flight.

The former Aston Villa man has rarely put a foot wrong since Steve McClaren raided Villa Park for his services in the summer of 2001.

But Southgate, who narrowly missed out to last year's Northern Echo Player of the Year Darlington's Craig Liddle, has again finished just behind Westwood.

It has been a season to forget for Sunderland. Unwanted record after unwanted record have been broken by the Black Cats.

Their season culminated in 15 consecutive Premiership defeats, meaning it will be Nationwide League football next season under Mick McCarthy.

And the failings on Wearside mean, unsurprisingly, that no Sunderland player has made it into our team of the year.

In fact, the only player who had a chance of claiming a place was third-choice goalkeeper Jurgen Macho.

The Austrian had a spell in goal when Sunderland suffered badly with injuries and during his 13 starts his side picked up ten of the 19 points collected during the full season.

Macho's rating of 6.83 was better than Middlesbrough's Mark Schwarzer, but as Sunderland's out of favour shot-stopper had not played in 15 of his side's games this season he did not qualify for our final totals.

As well as having the best goalkeeper though, Sunderland should not be as proud to boast the worst three players in the region over the past nine months.

Club record buy Tore Andre Flo - he cost £8.2m remember? - is officially the worst player in the region.

But the former Chelsea and Rangers man, with a dreadful average of 5.52, is kept in good company - or should that be bad - by two teammates at the Stadium of Light - club skipper Michael Gray and Paul Thirlwell.

Read more about Hartlepool here.