After featuring nearly 100 times for the Robins over the past two seasons, Jack Higgins has continually delivered on the field with committed and whole-hearted performances for his club. Win, lose or draw the commanding centre-back always has time for the fans on the terraces at Hurst Cross too, as he is the first to thank those that have contributed to the clubs success.

Having picked up the Supporters player of the season award a fortnight ago, Higgins' well known ‘fans favourite’ status has come to the fore, as his top quality performances were rewarded with the respective accolade, something he is extremely grateful for.

With plenty of silverware on offer during presentation evening, including the players player and managers player award, the former Clitheroe man was honoured to have been noticed by the paying public and claimed his award as the supporters key performer was a ‘huge privilege.’

“I’m chuffed to have won the award, the fans watch all the games and a lot of our fans travel home and away so they really know their stuff. It’s a nice end to finish the campaign with an award.”
Higgins continued by saying; “In fact it’s nice to pick up any award, obviously your team-mates play with you week in week out and they see you training. Fans only see what happens Saturday and Tuesday but they pay their hard earned money which keeps the club going. The fans have great knowledge of non-league football and to accumulate enough votes to help me scoop the award is a great privilege for me.
The most disappointing is that a lot of the fans say they are proud of us, which is great! However the lads feel genuine disappointment as to us play-off defeat is failure.”

The relationship between player and supporter works both ways and the 23 year old feels real pain for the way the Robins faithful have had to witness their side lose out during consecutive play-off’s seasons.

The Robins vice-captain praised the clubs fans for their continued support and pledged that the squad would return next season as a stronger outfit, with the prospect of making it third time lucky on everyone’s minds. “We’ve finished higher than ever before and obtained more points than we ever have in years. I feel for the fans, they pay a lot petrol and coach fare to travel all over the country to watch us. I’m disappointed we’ve not done it for the fans.”

After heartbreak against AFC Fylde in May 2014, Paul Phillips and Steve Halford’s men bounced back this campaign and finished 3rd just behind Workington AFC and eventual league champions FC United. The progression shown by the club has been exceptional and Higgins hopes more fan backing can lead to the club finally reaching the Conference North this time next year. “We said losing in 2013/14 would make us stronger after being beaten in the final, it's made us closer as a group, we’ve been beaten again and it will only make us closer. If we can pick up the attendances from the Curzon Ashton game, or even if we could see an extra 200 on the gate it would really push us on. For fans that do watch us regularly, I’ve only got great things to say, they are all great people and they love the club. Thank you and see you next season!”