Football Fan of the Year: Meet our first monthly winner, Rob Lowndes

Rob was selected by England and Newcastle legend Alan Shearer

The final whistle has blown on the first month of our Football Fan of the Year competition and we’ve got our inaugural monthly winner: Rob Lowndes – a Crawley Town fan and a local hero.

England and Newcastle legend Alan Shearer picked Rob out from over 1,000 entries, thanks to his tireless and inspiring efforts during lockdown.

Rob volunteers at his local club Whyteleafe FC, who faced closure during the early stages of lockdown. He managed to rally the troops to raise over £4,000 and help keep Whyteleafe alive.

He also devoted plenty of his free time to the club and set up a local football group that boasts over 100 members, keeping the local community active and boosting morale when they’re permitted to play.

Speaking about Whyteleafe, Rob said: “It’s a family-run club, it’s a very popular place to be with youth, academies and also for the public using the facilities as well, which is great.”

As our first monthly winner, Rob will receive a football prize of his choice up to £1,000 and he told us how he plans to use it.

“I’d like to treat [my mate] Danny because he’s getting married this year. Subject to COVID, it’s the European Championships, so it would be phenomenal if we could do that and take Danny as a little treat before he gets married.”

We also spoke to Danny, who was full of praise for his pal: “Rob runs a membership of over 100 people and I know there’s so much admin involved, in terms of trying to get those members to turn up – credit to Rob and what he does.”

Rob has now secured his place in our Football Fan of the Year final at the end of the season, where one of our monthly winners will receive a football prize worth up to £10,000. If Rob won, how would he use the grand prize?

“The money would be spent down at Whyteleafe because the lads have only got basic changing rooms there. Also, from my point of view, they could do with some decent netting around the sides of the pitch and that’s my dream, that’s my goal.”

When things are back to normal, Rob joked that our Football Fan of the Year judge Alan Shearer could come down to Whyteleafe for a game too.

“Alan, you’re welcome to come down and have a run out. We only play nine-a-side now and there’s an age range, we’ve got some lads in their sixties playing…”

Think you or a friend could be our next monthly winner? Submit your nomination at footballfanoftheyear.co.uk.