RYAN Leonard feels his all round game is now being appreciated by the Southend United supporters.

Leonard was voted player of the year by the club’s fans.

And he remains delighted to have become the first Blues players since Kevin Maher back in 2007 to have twice picked up the award.

“Winning player of the year was a nice way to end the season and I would like to thank all the supporters who voted for me,” said Leonard.

“They watch us week in, week out so to be chosen by them really does mean a lot to me.

“I think as a midfielder you can sometimes be judged by goals and I should be scoring more than I do.

“But I think people can see the other things I do now, including the defensive work and it’s a nice feeling to have won the award.”

Leonard joins clubs legends Maher, Billy Best and Ronnie Pountney as the only Shrimpers players to have won player of the year more than once.

However, Leonard – who also picked up goal of the season for his impressive effort away at Sheffield United – was still left feeling frustrated at the end of the campaign due to Blues’ sudden loss of form.

“I really don’t know why it happened,” said Leonard, whose side were beaten in their final five games of the campaign.

“If we knew why it was happening then we would have been able to stop it.

“We had one bad result and never seemed to recover from it.

“I think in the end a lack of confidence was probably to blame but we will have to make sure we do better next season.

“We all love Southend and we will be going our all to make sure it can happen.”

Leonard will soon begin a running schedule in preparation for the start of pre-season training at the beginning of July.

And he will be bidding to get back to full fitness after fighting his way back from a knee injury in the latter stages of last season.

“Getting injured was difficult to take and it was horrible being on the sidelines for seven or eight weeks,” said Leonard.

“Thankfully I was able to get back quicker than expected but I did find coming back in quite difficult.

“You’re trying to get that fitness back but I can build that back up during pre-season.

“I’ll be fully recovered and I’ll be raring to go for the start of the new season as well.”

By that stage Leonard also hopes to have been joined in League One by his home-town club Plymouth Argyle .

The Pilgrims take on AFC Wimbledon in the League Two play-off final at Wembley on Monday May 30.

And he is keen to be in attendance.

“I’ll be speaking to the boys at Plymouth and I’ll be trying to get a ticket to go and cheer them on,” said Leonard, who grew up supporting the Pilgrims.

“I definitely want them to win the game and it would be great to have a couple of matches with them next season.”