Tomorrow night I shall be joining the football fraternity up in London for the PFA awards dinner.

This is a sign that the season is coming to its most crucial period and is the first of three big awards evenings.

The PFA awards has been on for many, many years followed by the League Manager's LMA awards, now held in Nottingham and a more recent occasion, but the sports journalists would argue that the Football Writers' dinner is the most senior.

This is always held on the Thursday evening before the FA Cup final. The football writers have their own player of the year and it is the oldest award around.

The players, of course, vote for their own choices and it was noticeable in the two categories, player and young player, that the majority were from the top clubs in the Premiership.

In fact, while the player's union covers all four divisions, there wasn't one player outside of the top half of the Premiership reaching the final list.

I suppose it's hard to argue when people like Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Drogba and co are seen so often on television.

But I think the difference with that and the League Manager's nominations are that Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho would not necessarily win, although they are naturally much admired by their fellow managers.

Back in 2001 our very own George Burley won, for instance, for his achievement in taking Ipswich to fifth place in his first season after promotion.

It could well be, for instance, that someone like Nigel Adkins at Scunthorpe could well get the LMA award for the fantastic job he has done after being the physio.

He has taken on the manager's role and guided the club into next year's Championship. For Scunthorpe supporters, it must be like winning the European Cup.

At one time there was a famous brand of whisky who sponsored the manager of the month awards and I was fortunate enough to collect a few gallons of the stuff.

But having had a very unfortunate experience as a teenager one New Year's Eve while first footing around Tyneside, I have never touched the stuff since!

And for anyone who thinks drinking too much whisky is a good idea, I'd point to a story I remember involving Jack Charlton.

After an awards dinner, where only whisky was served, we went back to our hotel room to have a sleep before an evening do ... single beds, of course!

The phone rang and I answered and it was reception who said they had a car waiting for Jack, and they were sorry they were late.

I don't drink whisky so I was fine, but Jack had indulged. I woke him up and, when I passed on the message, he sprung out of bed, threw his clothes on and ran out the door saying he was supposed to be on TV.

About half an hour later, I turned on the TV and there was Jack, eyes somewhat wider than usual and with a great lump of hair sticking up!

That is a reason not to drink too much whisky at lunchtime.

To read all of Lawrie McMenemy's exclusive column don't miss today's Daily Echo.