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.”