Charlie Hughes says it was an unexpected bonus to be awarded Hull City’s Young Player of the Season to cap what has been a memorable week.
The 21-year-old has impressed in his first season at City since moving from Wigan Athletic in the summer, despite suffering from two injury setbacks, with his one goal certainly one to remember in the 93rd minute at Hillsborough last month.
Hughes suffered from an appendix problem early in the season that required surgery before he damaged his hamstring around Christmas, which then forced him to miss a big chunk of the campaign. Those setbacks meant he was restricted to 27 Championship outings, but he became a consistent performer and a firm fan favourite on the terraces.
While Hughes, a £3.5m addition from Wigan Athletic, was crowned the club’s young player, goalkeeper Ivor Pandur claimed the top award for a fine first season in English football, taking the crown off last season’s winners, Jacob Greaves and Jaden Philogene, respectively.
Pandur played 44 of City’s 46 league games, keeping six clean sheets in what was a challenging campaign for the Tigers, narrowly avoiding relegation to League One on the final day of the season at Portsmouth.
“It was so unexpected from me because for the games that I’ve played, the games that I wanted to play, I didn’t think I’d be collecting any award. Listen to collect two awards from a season, only playing 28 (one was at Wigan before his move) games, I’ll take that,” Hughes told Hull Live.
Throughout the campaign, Pandur has been an ever-present bar two games loanee Carl Rushworth played prior to him going back to Brighton, and Hughes says his performances are one of the key reasons City will be playing in the Championship next season.
“He’s been great for us, we talked about keeping clean sheets week in, week out, and sometimes that’s just not the case,” said Hughest. “I think we would have conceded a lot more goals if it weren’t for this man.
“The lads are grateful to have him in behind us. He’s been outstanding this season, and I think he deserves all three awards that he’s got.”
Both awards were presented to the players at the club’s Cottingham training ground after boss Ruben Selles cancelled the end-of-season awards evening. The event should have taken place last Tuesday evening, but with City in the bottom three after the defeat to Derby County and in relegation trouble, the Spaniard felt it would be inappropriate to proceed with it.