Dundee skipper Charlie Adam says being crowned the Championship Player of the Season award is a reward for the whole club rather than just himself.
The Dens Park talisman scooped the award after helping the Dark Blues win promotion back to the Premiership in his first campaign at his boyhood club.
It adds to James McPake’s Manager of the Season award picked up last month after a fine end to the 2020/21 term.
Adam scored the winner against Kilmarnock in the first leg of the play-off final and set up two goals for Jordan McGhee in the semi-final win at Raith Rovers.
To add to the club’s promotion success, Adam has now seen off competition from the likes of Craig Gordon and Liam Boyce of Hearts to win the coveted Player of the Season award.
Delighted to have won the @spfl Championship Player of the Season award, the hard work starts now for us all to be ready for the challenge of the Premier League. pic.twitter.com/iFEG0OBrHe
— Charlie Adam (@Charlie26Adam) June 21, 2021
‘Real togetherness’
However, he credits his team-mates for making the promotion dream a reality last season as they get started in pre-season for Premiership football next month.
Adam said: “It was a nice surprise. It is always good to collect individual awards at the end of the season but the most important thing when I came to Dundee was to get promoted.
I said when I signed that I wanted to be the best player in the league, I wanted to get the club promoted and we managed to achieve that.
“It is great for everybody, the club, the manager. For him to pick up the Manager of the Year award in his first full season is brilliant for the club.
“It’s another reward for how well we did at the back end of the season.
“At the start of the season, we were inconsistent and then we picked up to go on a run at the end of the campaign which is where the main bits happen.
“We got promoted which was great but it is not about me as an individual or the manager – it is the collective group.
“We improved as the season went on and there was a real togetherness, something we have to take into next season.”
Across the season Adam netted seven times in 32 matches, suffering defeat on just nine occasions.
And the Dens skipper put on a captain’s display in both legs of the final against Kilmarnock, scoring the key goal in the first leg at Dens Park.
This week Adam and his Dundee team-mates got back into pre-season training at Riverside on Monday.
They kick off their pre-season schedule on Saturday at Forfar Athletic before the Premier Sports Cup group stage gets under way on July 13.
That’s at home to Brora Rangers ahead of the Premiership campaign starting as St Mirren visit Dens Park on July 31.