After a standout campaign that included 25 goals in all competitions, Danny Ings was left humbled to collect two Southampton end of season awards.
Ings, who enjoyed his first season as a permanent Saints player, collected both the Virgin Media Fans’ Player of the Season award and Players’ Player of the Season prize, confirming his telling contribution in 2019/20.
The striker became the first Saint player to reach 20 goals in a single season since Rickie Lambert in 2011/12, finishing joint-second and just one goal shy of the Premier League Golden Boot, with 22.
Winning both accolades, Ings was keen to share the credit with his teammates: “It’s really nice to get recognition for the goals that I’ve scored this season, but overall my mentality is always the team, team, team.
Danny Ings
without the lads chipping in and working their socks off, I wouldn’t have been able to score the goals I did.
“You see the work that I try and do off the ball which I think is just as important as scoring goals. The team comes first overall and without the lads chipping in and working their socks off I wouldn’t have been able to score the goals I did, so a huge thanks to them.
“It’s nice to know I’m doing everything I can for the team and the lads are noticing that. I’m extremely humbled by it, it’s my hometown and to win this award from all of the lads is huge and I can’t thank them enough for everything they’ve done.”
Finishing a second season with his boyhood team, the 28-year-old also praised the supporters, who voted to give the striker his second end of season award.
He said: “It’s really nice and I felt that as soon as I came to Southampton, I had a great bond with the fans and that’s carried on through the two seasons so far.
“It’s great [to win the award] and thanks to everybody that did vote for me, it means a lot and gives me great hunger to improve and be better.
“It’s a little bit different now without fans in the stadium and it makes you realise how important fans are to a football club.
“For us, it’s important the fans are always behind us and we have that. Sometimes results didn’t go our way at home and it’s hard to explain the reasons for that, but it’s important for us as a team and a club now to reward the fans for their loyalty and support with more wins at home.”
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