THE secretary of the Tavistock Specials said he was 'truly humbled' after receiving a Devon FA honour Respect Award.
Allen Lewis, was presented with an award at a special ceremony in Exeter last week for his work on promoting the FA's Respect Campaign, which aims for all in the game to have greater respect for officials. fellow players and themselves by the way they play the game.
Mr Lewis also thanked all those people and companies in Tavistock that he said he was so grateful for their continuing support.
Allen from Tavistock said: 'When I decided to take on this challenge I knew it would be tough but as Sheena my wife said, "When you know in your heart your right about something, then you can go for it!'
'What's really good about this award is its positive for football in Tavistock and it was great to see a hard working man like Mark Wickett get the runner up coach award!'
'After a successful year at Tavistock AFC working with local businesses and their manager Ian Southcott, I was sorry to step down as commercial manager due to such an increase in my work with Disability Football and Tavistock Youth Cafe Plus Special Needs Children's Group. I also have a family!'
'Respect in football is so important to keep the game as clean as possible!
Last night I said to the very wise Dave Keast from the Devon FA , when you take on promoting Respect then you have to take a look at yourself first! It was good for me to iron out some of my flaws, especially when watching my middle son in his U10's last season.'
Alan was also presented with the tickets to the Community Shield at Wembley to see his favourite football team Manchester United play Chelsea!
Adam Hopkins, Respect lead officer for Devon FA's said Allen and the other recipients throughly deserved their awards.
He told the Times: 'The figures locally and nationally are very positive and with the work going on by people like Allen we have no doubt that the culture of football can change. Allen has done a tremendous amount of work on the programme locally and deserves to be recognised for his efforts. There is still a lot of work to be done in order to achieve our, referee for every game target, but we are positive that we will reach the standards we set.
'A man on a mission" is really the only way to describe this determined, hard working and caring member of Tavistock FC. Over recent months Allen Lewis has worked tirelessly within Tavistock to tackle the abusive behaviour in football.
'When the Respect programme was launched Allen came to the forefront and took it upon himself to launch the project in Tavistock.
'Using local businesses whom Allen has great relationships with he has managed to gain support with funding to help promote the programme. When you now visit Tavistock Football Club you get a real sense that the club are trying hard to be a bench mark for all other clubs. First team management have backed Allen in his quest and the members of the committee have shown Allen the support he needs to address behaviour in football.
'Whilst appreciating that this is a change in culture Allen believes that with some hard work and the backing of good local people, football in Tavistock can be something that is admired.'