Ryan Greenaway, Fan Blogger, 27th April. - To Vote For Your Player Of The Year Click Here
At the beginning of the season I was asked to pick out my choices for this season's Player of the Year. At the time I made two choices, Ryan Harley and Troy Archibald-Henville (should he remain with us all year).
Whilst Troy has remained with us all season, and became our first signing where we actually shelled out a transfer fee, for some time, it's typical that the moment we signed him he got crocked and has been missing all season. Spurs fans weren't lying when they said they thought he'd be the next Ledley King!
My other selection, Ryan Harley, has had a mixed bag in my opinion. At times he's been frustrating, holding onto the ball too long, not shooting when he had the chance, and perhaps trying to do too much. Other times he has been absolutely superb. His game against Leeds typified this, controlling the game with a range of sweeping passes from midfield in tricky conditions. Getting stuck in when needed and topping off this superb display with two top class goals that will live long in the memory of City fans as it clinched a superb victory against one the "big" clubs, supposedly.
Does this make him my Player of the Season at the business end of things? Unfortunately not, he's on the shortlist but just not quite produced the best performances enough to warrant my vote.
"Who else made your shortlist?" I hear you cry in frenzied excitement.
Next on the list might surprise a few but it's the admirable Steve Tully.
Steve Tully, I remember thinking that after promotion from the Conference back to League Two, right-back was a position we'd need to address. Steve had done a decent job for us, but looked like he'd reached his level and he was no spring chicken. However, Steve surprised most of us by turning out solid performance after solid performance and rightly holding down his position throughout the season. I thought this season would be a step too far for him again, but once again he's made a pretty smooth transition.
It would be easy to fall into the trap of saying he's gone as far as he can, but without setting the league alight he's been an important part of our team, working tirelessly up and down the right flank offering attacking options and defensive solidity. Probably the quality of his crossing is the only thing that has let him down when in those attacking positions, and he just misses out on the award because of that.
The other member of the shortlist is Adam Stansfield. His amazing appetite to chase lost causes, harass defenders and implement our policy of defending from the front is hugely admirable and makes him an important cog in our machine. He has even scored goals for us this season, and but for injury and his recent health problems could have been a respectable tally in the mid-teens.
Given his health problems it would have been easy to award Adam my vote, but I'm pretty certain Adam would want the vote because he's earned it and no other reason. He probably would have had my vote too had it not been for extended absences through injury, but let's hope next season sees him back at the Park and scoring vital goals for us and hopefully edging up towards that 20 goal mark, which I'm certain he could do with a full season, and more importantly, if he just stopped passing and shot!
There were also a number of players who have shown considerable improvement throughout the season such as Richard Duffy, James Dunne and Scott Golbourne, all these players come into consideration but ultimately fall short of the shortlist due to the fact they've not maintained a high level of form all season.
Therefore my vote goes to, none other than Captain Fantastic himself, Matt Taylor. An absolute rock in the centre of our back three, it's fantastic to see a good old fashioned defender who's not afraid to stick his head in where it hurts and puts his body on the line for the cause week after week. The nature of our pitch in this second half of the season has seen a lot of teams take the approach of putting a lot more crossing into our penalty area and taking the aerial route. Luckily for us we have a defender who I have rarely seen, beaten to the ball in the air.
His crowning glory (despite the unfortunate own goal) was in the televised match against Swindon where he typified so many footballing clichés rolled out for defenders like him. Man Mountain, Goliath, Rock etc, could all be applied to his performance in that game, and has me distinctly worried that our best kept secret may have been let out in full view of all watching managers. It's been his ability to turn out performances like this week after week, to the point where we almost take them for granted, that has made him my choice for Player of the Season. He has led by example and typifies the team ethic that Paul Tisdale wants to instil in the squad.
Well done Matt, and hopefully look forward to more performances of this ilk next season, fingers crossed, in League One.
To vote for your Player Of The Year click here, and keep visiting the Official Website for plenty more Player Of The Year features ahead of the Thursday 6th May deadline.
