Player of the Year - Update

Post by **Gulliball** » 13 Mar 2016, 00:35

These figures are for after the Braintree match on Tuesday, so 34 games into the 46 that we'll play this season. I won't do the full list, but just those with a reasonable total.

1st: Nathan Smith (117 points)
2nd: Dan Butler (101)
3rd: Courtney Richards (74)
4th: Angus MacDonald (72)
5th: James Hurst (69)
6th: Durrell Berry (60)
7th: Tyrone Marsh (45)
8th: Andre Wright (36)

Barring a late surge, it is looking like a two horse race for top spot, with young Nathan Smith currently in pole position. As you might expect with multiple managers and frequent overhauls of players, we have a lot of players scoring points but not very many appearing enough times to build a big total. In fact Brendan Moore will become the 32nd different player to score points this season - this is pretty similar to the current record of 34 used in the 2013/14 relegation season which again saw multiple managers, and in that particular season an awful lot of loanees. Compare that to Martin Ling's settled 2011/12 when only 20 players scored points and we reached the play-offs, and the other totals have been 25 (2012/13), 27 (2014/15) and 30 (2010/11).

Butler, Smith, MacDonald and Richards are the only players who will go through the whole season as regular first team players and so will battle for the title. Every other player has either been signed later (Berry, Wright etc) or departed after an initial flourish (Hurst, Marsh etc). At the end of the season I'll do a points per start comparison to try to get a fairer fight, and also compare these players to other loan or short-term signings in previous seasons.

Butler will probably take Kevin Nicholson's (2011/12) place in the all-time (well, since 2010) team. Nathan Smith faces a much tougher task, as centre-backs have dominated this feature going right back to Guy Branston's record high of 167 points (49 games). Aaron Downes scored 145 in 2012/13 and this is the total he needs to beat to partner guy.

Having played in 33 of the 34 games he's currently scoring 3.55 points per game, and if he kept this up for the final 12 games he would finish on 159. Not only would this beat Luke Young, who won last season with 155 points (quite a high total) but would be the second highest total in the 6 seasons this has been running. Given that those 2010/11 totals were from 49 games, it would be a phenomenal total for someone who is still a teenager until 3rd April. He does face more competition now that we have 11 decent players in the starting line-up, but man of the match performances vs Kidderminster and Braintree this week suggest he's very much in the frame for this.

Our current typical starting 11 in points: Lavercombe (14), Berry (60), Butler (101), Smith (117), MacDonald (72), Rees (4), Racchi (22), Richards (74), Ajala ( 8), Harrad (9), Blisset (9) - a fairly settled backline but nearly a whole new front 6 since January.

Individual Man of the Match Winners:

Nathan Smith - 6
James Hurst - 5
Dan Butler - 4
Tyrone Marsh - 4
Courtney Richards - 4
Durrell Berry - 3
Andre Wright - 2
Exodus Geohaghon - 2
Dan Lavercombe - 1
Angus MacDonald - 1
Danny Racchi - 1
Fabian Speiss - 1

Monthly winners to date:

August (7 games) - Courtney Richards (27 points)
September (6 games) - James Hurst (31 points)
October (6 games) - Durrell Berry (22 points)
November (3 games) - Andre Wright (14 points)
December (4 games) - Dan Butler (17 points)
January (3 games) - Nathan Smith (17 points)
February (2 games) - Dan Butler (12 points)
March (8 games)
April (7 games)

I think that's a basic overview for just now. If anyone wants any other figures or any possible interesting angles or questions to investigate, then I will do my best to answer these.

kevgull · Post by **kevgull** » 13 Mar 2016, 09:18

Our best player this season is undoubtedly Nathan Smith.
However Nathan is on loan and therefore will not receive any award from the club.
Given this, TUFC's Player of the season should go to Dan Bulter.

I think Dan would have been a lot closer to Nathan's performances if he had played in his preferred position all season.

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 13 Mar 2016, 18:57

kevgull wrote:Our best player this season is undoubtedly Nathan Smith.
However Nathan is on loan and therefore will not receive any award from the club.

Are you sure about this? You may well be right, but I thought I remembered Anthony O'Connor being voted Player of the Season when he was on loan the season before last. If you are right, then it is a travesty. Whether or not Nathan Smith is a loanee, there are few who would dispute that he has been our best and most consistent player all season.

P.s. Great statistics and very interesting, Gulliball - thanks.

lucy6lucy · Post by **lucy6lucy** » 13 Mar 2016, 19:13

One thing is sure hurst and marsh can .... ... In the voting. Horrid attitude from those two idiots. Surprised lavercombe not in the frame.

Post by **Dave** » 13 Mar 2016, 19:59

Firstly thanks once again to Gulliball for taking the time doing the motm polls and updates. I with tommo on Nathan Smith, I can not for the life of me see, any reason why Nathan Smith would be excluded from winning any seasonal awards, Smith has been on loan for the season represented Torquay United football club all season, there's no doubt he'll be included in all awards should he win.

After all what would the club do if an on loan finished as top goalscorer, they wouldn't strike that record because he was borrowed from another club.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » 13 Mar 2016, 20:40

Wasn't Branston also technically on loan the first (part) year he was with us? Didn't he win something in the PoS awards?

EDIT - Yes he did. He was on loan from Burton in 09/10, and won runner up in PoS

Gullible · Post by **Gullible** » 14 Mar 2016, 15:53

Undoubtedly, Nathan Smith is a very good player, especially for his age and probably why he's accrued so many points (despite the teams poor defensive record coming up to Christmad). However, I think Dan Butler would have more points if he hadn't been ousted from the LB position when KN came in. I also think that he deserves a lot of credit as, in addition to the 2 goals he's scored, he's also had the most assists.

DevonYellow · Post by **DevonYellow** » 15 Mar 2016, 06:54

tomogull wrote: Are you sure about this? You may well be right, but I thought I remembered Anthony O'Connor being voted Player of the Season when he was on loan the season before last. If you are right, then it is a travesty. Whether or not Nathan Smith is a loanee, there are few who would dispute that he has been our best and most consistent player all season.

P.s. Great statistics and very interesting, Gulliball - thanks.

I seemed to recall him getting a reward too. A look on the ever reliable Wikipedia(!) shows he won young player of the year.

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