Your Club's Player of the Year

[Jan Vojáček]

So now we know who the players have nominated as their player of the year, it could be interesting to see who the fans consider the standouts from each club - prior to these being officially announced (for most teams anyway). It also saves people hitting out with the, 'don't know why *Jobber from my team* hasn't been nominated' patter on the PFA thread.

Our Player of the Year is Alan Martin, and anyone who argues otherwise knows nothing about football/is at the windup. Without him we'd be planning for League 1 football by now, and I don't think I'd swap him for another 'keeper in the country, never mind the league. Seriously.

Young POTY is probably a toss up between Daniel Harvie and Sam Stanton. Harvie has been quietly excellent at left-back, especially considering how young he is, and now appears to be the Scotland U19s first choice LB as a result. Replacing him will be a big task in the summer should we stay up.

Stanton meanwhile took a while to get going, but my God when he got up to speed he showed us how good a player he is. At the start it was hard to see why we had brought him in, a winger with little confidence and little physically was pretty much the last thing we needed. He's settled though, and you can now see the confidence flowing through him. He's wonderful to watch when he plays in a deep midfield role - as demonstrated last week at Palmerston - and is one of the few players we have with the ability to create a moment of magic out of nothing. The way he glides past players is sublime, and I genuinely believe he could cut it in the lower half of the Premiership - if someone like Killie, Hamilton etc took a punt and had a manager who believed in him.

Purely as an outsider I'd stick the following as my standouts from elsewhere:

Ayr United: Greg Fleming had an excellent game against us in March, however he looked shaky before that, so I have to be predictable and say Nicky Devlin. A wonderful athlete, hugely powerful full-back and model captain. What I'd do to have him back at the Rock. Believe Fleming cleaned up at their POTY awards though, so fair play to him for that.

Dundee United: They've pretty much reserved their worst performances of the season for when they play us (keep that up on Saturday plz). That being said Tony Andreu is a player I've admired for a wee while, and he's still got that bit of magic that few have at this level. Honurable mention for Cammy Bell too, who seems to have recovered from his Rangers nightmare.

Dunfermline Athletic: They are the exact opposite to Dundee United, dishing out pumpings to us fairly regularly. Naturally therefore I've been impressed by a few of their players. Sean Murdoch is right up there with 'your Alan Martins of this world' in the goalkeeping stakes, Nicky Clark's movement and finishing are a lethal combination, whilst Kallum Higginbotham can be magnificent on his day and Rhys McCabe was head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch in the 0-2 a few weeks ago. Despite all that I'll got for wee Paul McMullan, a guy who barely made an impression at St Mirren or Morton, yet now looks like he has the potential to be one of the best wingers in the league. 

Falkirk: As usual Falkirk have gone about being quietly very decent, without stealing the limelight with a big name. Craig Sibbald grabs most of the headlines, but for me Luke Leahy is one of their main unsung heroes. I don't think I've ever seen him have a bad game, and he scored a quite fantastic goal against us in February. 

Greenock Morton: I remember as if it were yesterday standing with my Papa and Ross Forbes on the pitch at the, then, Strathclyde Homes Stadium asking him what he was doing next season. He told us he reckoned he'd join the Police if he got let go by Motherwell and rejoin us. How I wish that had happened! His set piece deliveries are terrifying and he plays such a huge role in what Morton do that it's little surprise that as his form has tailed off so have results. Honurable mention to big Tam O'Ware too. Hitting double figures from centre-back is outstanding.

Hibernian: Is this Hibs' team better than last years? I'm really not sure. Nonetheless they are up, and have done so comfortably. After Wednesday I'm tempted to say James Keatings! In reality however it has to be the boi JC#35 #CumDog, he's just such a natural goal scorer and likeable lad that it's difficult to pick someone else! I hope Dylan McGeouch gets over his injury problems soon, as he really is a classy player. Arguably one of the most gifted in that side. 

Queen of the South: Well, this isn't hard. Stephen Dobbie, by about the distance between my house and Palmerston. One of the most talented players in the league, a natural goalscorer, creator and entertainer. Without him they'd be in a pretty major fight at the bottom. 

Raith Rovers: Lewis Vaughan. Obviously. If I had to pick from the current squad however things are a lot trickier. They've been mince against us this season - barring in the 3-2 game in September. Craig Barr is always a player I've been a fan of, but his injury situation means he can't really be considered. That leaves it really open to his namesake Bobby Barr, a menace to us for many years, and probably one of the few players who can genuinely be happy with his performances this season for the club. 

St Mirren: You really have to consider St Mirren a new club who only joined the league at the end of January. Their change since Jack Ross was allowed to bring in his own players has been enormous. Stelios looked decent against us - and has grabbed quite a few goals, and a catchy song - Stevie Mallan is finally looking like the player we hoped he'd become a few years ago, whilst Harry Davis put in a handful of immense displays before having his season ended. Only one man can get the award however, and that has to be Stephen McGinn. He's given Saints a leader on the pitch for the first time in a long while, and his tendency to rattle one in from 25 yards is certainly an endearing attribute. Honourable mention to Lewis Morgan too, for looking red hot right until being punted by an Ayr player and stretchered off. He could have a big future.

Over to you, P&B.

[Cowshed118]

Big Tam for me , double figures from centre back as you say and hardley missed a game all season

[Scosha]

Forbes steals the headlines for his goals/assists stats this season which are simply incredible. There was a stage around November where every game he was either scoring or someone got on the end of a cross from him to score. But there's a few candidates in the Morton team. Pre-injury Gary Oliver was on exceptional form linking our midfield with the attack driving at defences. He put in his first decent performance since the injury against Ayr last Saturday so hopefully he'll be back to his usual self for the play-offs. 

Thomas O'Ware has been excellent as well, goals aside he is a very decent defender at this level. Must've played every minute of every game this season. 

And then there's the pairing of Andy Murdoch and Jamie Lindsay, our equivalent to Xavi and Iniesta. That's maybe pushing it actually but they're both very good players defending and attacking. If it wasn't for Forbes I'd have Andy Murdoch as our player of the season. Does a lot of work that goes unnoticed and makes us tick, very good at winning the ball and getting an attack going. Once lost his virginity and won it back, as Mikey Doyle said a few weeks ago  

 

Edit - after reading VT's post I had completely forgotten about our saviour, Sir Gavin Gunning. What a fucking player at this level and an absolute mentalist. Could argue he's our player of the season since performances and results improved imminently after his arrival. 

[bridge of allan bairn]

Craig sibbald. Not the biggest or quickest but supremely skilful, still younger than many people think despite having played well over 200 games for us. Didn't score many last season but has already scored ten league goals this season. Tricky skilful clever entertaining player and one if us. If we don't go up this year he'll probably leave a la Alston ladt season. Enjoy him while we can folks

[Sloop John B]

Mark Millar for me, just a class act, a hard worker and a terrific passer.

 

 

Spoiler

 It's not really,  It's Stephen Dobbie obvs.

 

[Mr.Blue]

Forbes is rightly so getting a lot of plaudits this season but I'd go for O'Ware. He's been a rock all season, has consistently played well. Plus he's chipped in with a few goals as well.

[eez-eh]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you putting forward Alan Martin, or indeed Greg Fleming getting our award, but I always feel like there's a tendency for fans of clubs near the bottom of the league to overstate how good their goalkeepers are. I'd imagine it's to do with facing more shots and hence making more saves, it's just quite rare you'll see fans of promotion chasing clubs waxing lyrical about their goalkeeper.

[sergie's no1 fan]

Stephen McGinn will be the obvious choice for us, Gary MacKenzie has turned into a solid defender since January, Mallan finally turning it on with the arrival of McGinn but for me the only player to be consistent the whole season is Lewis Morgan. Kyle Magennis and Kyle McAllister both deserve a mention too, fantastic from the youngsters, they were introduced just when we started to turn results and performances around.

[itzdrk]

Jamie Adams

Everyone has been poor for us this year but without him we mostly crumble. 

[Jan Vojáček]

3 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you putting forward Alan Martin, or indeed Greg Fleming getting our award, but I always feel like there's a tendency for fans of clubs near the bottom of the league to overstate how good their goalkeepers are. I'd imagine it's to do with facing more shots and hence making more saves, it's just quite rare you'll see fans of promotion chasing clubs waxing lyrical about their goalkeeper.

I get what you're saying, but Mark Brown was our goalkeeper for most of last year, and he was fairly rancid, despite us staying up. I genuinely don't think it is a case of overstating - certainly not in Martin's case. I raved about Danny Rogers a few years back, and he's proven himself at the top end of this league with Falkirk. Martin has been better for us, he's the more complete package - as you would expect at this stage of his career - although I think Danny will go on to have a better overall career. 'Keepers may be facing more shots, but that means that they come under more pressure. Just look at Ross Laidlaw for evidence of that! Not good enough for Raith, but fine in a goalscoring Hibernian side.

I've given Sean Murdoch at the Pars and Cammy Bell a shoutout in it too, both of whom are at clubs at the right end of the table. I'm a massive fan of Murdoch in particular, and it's no surprise that Dunfermline's poor start to the season came with David (Sinclair-) Hutton in goals. 

#GKUnion

[Salvo Montalbano]

For us, Sean Murdoch  will hoover up the Player of the Year awards from the other players and supporters clubs for being consistently good while the rest of the contenders (Wedderburn, Higginbotham, Clark) have had several off days in amongst the few good performances that other supporters might see. Young Player would have to be Paul McMullan, who has created a lot of chances, scored a couple of goals and got us up the park when we've been under pressure. He even got an under-21 call-up as a result of his performances. For other teams, I've been most impressed with:

Ayr: Greg Fleming for being better than he was at East End and for his mental penalty saving record. 
Dumbarton: Robert Thomson always plays well against us, and scored against us too. Never seemed to do that for us.
Dundee Utd: Willo Flood was their best footballer at East End but Simon Murray always seems to play well against us.
Falkirk: Despite the acrobatics, Miles Hippolyte did well against us every time we played them and I'm surprised he's not more of a regular. 
Greenock Morton: We've somehow beaten them twice and play them tomorrow so it's hard to say. Jai Quitongo looked good before his injury though.
Hibernian: Was disappointed with McGinn, but the other midfielders looked the part. Dylan McGeough (sp?) looks a really good prospect. 
Queen of the South: Has to be Stephen Dobbie. Looked a class apart and is too good to be playing at this level.  Derek Lyle still has it though. Great movement. 
St. Mirren: Hard to tell. 2 wins and 2 boring draws against them this season so nobody stood out. Probably go for Stephen McGinn, as he looked good at Paisley in the 0-0 there. 

[vikingTON]

In the middle of September The Famous' first team side was producing utterly shan performances, was winless in its first five league games and had just lust to Queens Park and even little Ayr United. This was a large crisis. A truly heroic figure was required to revive this once-proud football club and arrive He did:

Under Sir Gavin's inspirational leadership, the team won seven of their next ten league games, taking them from 9th in the table to 3rd; lesser mortals have of course let that position slide since he left. Then, in his final act at the club, with the team trailing against the spoon-burners and reduced to ten men, Sir Gavin took a squad of players that could have (and later in the season did) absolutely shat the bed, but instead put things straight for them and delivered a creditable draw through Ricki Lamie's glorious 95th minute equaliser. 

Statistically the best defender the club has had in a campaign that has been based on keeping matches tight. A heroic leader of men and a worthy understudy to Brian Wake in the Pantheon of true Morton heroes. A fitting photo tribute is required:

(Sir Gavin shows concern for the plight of his former club and their gormless rabble of fans in the away end, as Morton go 2-0 up in the LC quarter-final):

(Sir Gavin as the inspirational leader of men)

[vikingTON]

An honourable mention to Forbes who has had a generally excellent season, but it's not really going to be 'Sir Ross Forbes' anytime soon. 

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

6 minutes ago, virginton said:

In the middle of September The Famous' first team side was producing utterly shan performances, was winless in its first five league games and had just lust to Queens Park and even little Ayr United. This was a large crisis. A truly heroic figure was required to revive this once-proud football club and arrive He did:

Under Sir Gavin's inspirational leadership, the team won seven of their next ten league games, taking them from 9th in the table to 3rd; lesser mortals have of course let that position slide since he left. Then, in his final act at the club, with the team trailing against the spoon-burners and reduced to ten men, Sir Gavin took a squad of players that could have (and later in the season did) absolutely shat the bed, but instead put things straight for them and delivered a creditable draw through Ricki Lamie's glorious 95th minute equaliser. 

Statistically the best defender the club has had in a campaign that has been based on keeping matches tight. A heroic leader of men and a worthy understudy to Brian Wake in the Pantheon of true Morton heroes. A fitting photo tribute is required:

(Sir Gavin shows concern for the plight of his former club and their gormless rabble of fans in the away end, as Morton go 2-0 up in the LC quarter-final):

(Sir Gavin as the inspirational leader of men)

First chance he got 'Sir Gavin' was out of Greenock faster than a rat up a drainpipe.

[Scosha]

1 minute ago, Bigmouth Strikes Again said:

First chance he got 'Sir Gavin' was out of Greenock faster than a rat up a drainpipe.

More the fact Grimsby was much closer to home for him and they could pay far higher wages. If he gets punted from them at the end of the season I'd love to see us push the boat out and get him back. Cult hero for us this season.

[Socks]

Robert Thomson is a strange one to mention - he's been awful every time he's played against us, though was much better for Brechin last year when he was a real threat every time.

Usually it's a fairly easy call, but this year there isn't anyone who stands out. Murdoch has done pretty well and is probably the most likely winner, but in most games I don't think he's done any more than you'd expect from a reasonably competent goalkeeper in this division. Nat Wedderburn has had some good games recently, but was awful at the start of the season, and Callum Morris has done uite well since coming back but has only been with us since January. I'd probably give it to Lee Ashcroft if pushed - not outstanding by any means, but generally quite steady at the back, and the two centre halves had an important part in turning our season around by getting us through some spells when we were really struggling. Him and Morris have been a good pairing in the seocnd half of the season, but we were starting to look better at the back even before Morris came back.

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

Just now, Scosha said:

More the fact Grimsby was much closer to home for him and they could pay far higher wages. If he gets punted from them at the end of the season I'd love to see us push the boat out and get him back. Cult hero for us this season.

If that's the standard you're happy with, then fair enough.

[Scosha]

Just now, Bigmouth Strikes Again said:

If that's the standard you're happy with, then fair enough.

He's far too good for this level. 

[donald]

Alan Martin aw day.

[vikingTON]

10 minutes ago, Bigmouth Strikes Again said:

First chance he got 'Sir Gavin' was out of Greenock faster than a rat up a drainpipe.

Not as fast as a Walter Mitty character on the Dundee thread taking money from vulnerable, elderly, cat-lovers like yourself though. 

Hard lines.