RICKIE Lambert has tonight been voted the npower Championship’s Player of the Year.

Saints’ top scorer was selected ahead of colleague Adam Lallana and Cardiff City’s Pete Whittingham at a dinner at The Brewery in London.

Lambert has bagged a remarkable 21 league goals this season in his first ever campaign as a Championship footballer.

Included in that haul are hattricks against Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Watford.

Swindon’s ex-Pompey midfielder Matt Ritchie was voted League 2 player of the year while Huddersfield goal machine Jordan Rhodes was unsurprisingly chosen as the winner of the League 1 award.

Pompey won the Tokio Marine Family Club of the Year prize, while Brighton’s Gus Poyet took the silverware in the Outstanding Managerial Achievement section.

Burnley’s programme was voted best programme in the Football League while Crystal Palace’s Wilfreid Zaha was voted Young Player of the Year