Dan Butler - 45
Angus MacDonald - 41
Nathan Smith - 39
Courtney Richards - 35 (1)
Durrell Berry - 26
Aman Verma - 20 (3)
Simon Heslop - 19 (1)
Dan Lavercombe - 17 (1)
James Hurst - 17
Fabian Speiss - 17
Alex Fisher - 16 (5)
Exodus Geohaghon - 16 (2)
Simon Heslop started the 7th highest amount of games, and without wishing to give away too many spoilers, he doesn't win. In fact, only 5 players started more than half our games. Now bearing in mind that this award is a cumulative total of the 46 individual games then you're not going to win it playing 26 games, so missing the start and end of the season is going to exclude Durrell Berry as well. This leaves the battle for the title between Dan Butler, Nathan Smith and Angus MacDonald, although to plot the season out in full I am also going to include the early frontrunners Courtney Richards and James Hurst as well.
August Player of the Month Richards and September winner Hurst both started the season strongly and led for spells. However Courtney then suffered a run of almost ten games without scoring a single point and Hurst was suspended by the club on 9th November and was moved on shortly afterwards meaning he was never to add to the 69 points he accumulated in the opening 17 games.
This meant that at the half way stage, the standings were as follows:
=1. James Hurst (69)
=1. Nathan Smith (69)
3. Dan Butler (57)
4. Courtney Richards (56)
5. Angus MacDonald (52)
Smith had caught Hurst, and the other 4 had also managed to close the gap. It was now a four way battle, and all to play for. With a maximum of 7 points available per game then a 19 point gap could potentially be closed within a week.
By the three-quarter stage (34 out of 46 played) the table was looking like this:
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)
If you've forgotten where the Braintree game fell, this was the game immediately after the 4 game winning run of Boreham Wood, Welling, Macclesfield and Kidderminster. Having been 12 points adrift, we were now only three points from safety but still sitting in 22nd place in the league and having to overtake at least two more teams.
Nathan Smith was starting to pull away at the top, but Butler had gone with him. Richards and MacDonald were neck and neck in their own battle for the final podium position. We didn't know it yet, but Berry was soon to have his season ended and would join Hurst and Marsh in no longer scoring any further points. 8th placed Andre Wright also didn't play too many games during the run in and these four went on the finish the season in the exact same positions 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th.
None of the January signings started more than 16 games, and none managed to catch Andre's total. This is roughly the same as the number played by Hurst (17), so from his total you can see the sort of maximum position that any one of these players were able to reach. What this also shows is how much harder it is to score points when the whole team is playing well. The position that Hurst was in during September was the ideal point scoring scenario - you are scoring in every game and everyone else is appalling. 31 points came from the 6 games this month alone. Do that in March or April, when we had at least 8 players nominated for points in 14 of the 15 games, and all 11 players nominated in 4, and you'll have much more competition for the points on offer.
As a reminder of the scoring system, the Man of the Match scores 7 points, 2nd scores 5, 3th gets 4, 4th 3, 5th 2 and all other nominated players receive a token single point. So to get the big points and raise your total quickly, you need to be in the top few for each game on a regular basis. The less competition for this, the easier it is to score the higher numbers week after week.
So, 12 games to go and here we are: 1st: Nathan Smith (117 points) 2nd: Dan Butler (101) 3rd: Courtney Richards (74) and 4th: Angus MacDonald (72). Smith and Butler are fighting for the title and Richards and MacDonald are competing for third.
More importantly, the team are also battling for survival. We are still 22nd and have only 33 points on the board. Heroes are needed.
Step forward Angus MacDonald. Club captain and currently in 4th place, 45 points behind Nathan Smith. There's only 84 points to play for, and one more yellow card means he misses 3 games, worth potentially 21 points to him and far more to TUFC in the league table.
In the next game, away at Aldershot, he comes in 3rd place behind debutant Brendan Moore and defensive partner Nathan Smith. The gap is now 46 points with 11 to go. We then play Halifax at home and Angus is Man of the Match. The next Saturday Southport come to TQ1 and he is again Man of the Match. Smith could only finish in 2nd and 4th positions, so the gap is down to 40 points and 9 to play. The debacle at Dover sees neither score points and there are only 8 to play. Then, Nathan Smith picks up an injury and misses the next two games - can the captain capitalise? Eastleigh at home, Angus is Man of the Match. Then a trip to Gateshead, and he is a man mountain at the back, again Man of the Match. The gap is 26 with 6 to play, but Smith returns from injury for the Chester match.
It matters not though, as MacDonald finishes in 2nd place and Nathan fifth and it's 23 with 5 to play. Tranmere visit Plainmoor next and MacDonald is Man of the Match, whilst Smith is fourth, making the gap 19 points with 4 to play. If Angus does as he has in the previous few and outscores Nathan by 3, 4 or 5 points for these games, he still stands a chance.
Crucially though, the official Player of the Year award is voted for before this game, with 5 still to play. At this point Nathan Smith was leading by a reasonable margin and was a fair winner, but will he stay that way?
Well, the race then takes another major twist. Nathan Smith picks up another ankle injury, and the Tranmere game is the last time he will pull on a Torquay shirt. He will not appear in any of the final four games. It's worth remembering that we are only on 44 points at the time of both the official vote and Nathan's injury - still far from safety and still very much in need of a hero.
Nathan Smith would be watching the final games in with the Yellow Army
Next up is Altrincham in a massive game for our safety battle. Luke Young scores the first and wins the only Man of the Match award he will win this season, compared to 10 in 2014/15. A very narrow second though is Angus MacDonald, and these 5 points mean the gap is down to 14 with 3 to go.
Bromley away is next. We win and reach the magical 50 point mark, also mathematically securing our safety. The first goalscorer and also Man of the Match is Angus MacDonald. The gap is 7 points and only 2 games remain. In the previous 9 games he has been Man of the Match in six, and 2nd in two others, with only the Dover game a complete write off. One more man of the match award and the title is his for the taking.
But of course whilst the Bromley game was the game we secured survival, the captain went down with his ship. A 15th booking meant a three match suspension and his season was over. A great personal shame but this run should not be understated. Despite everything I said above about him battling for 3rd with Courtney Richards at the three-quarter mark and it being much harder to score points when the whole team is playing well, he produced a run of form to rival any player at any time since this feature started running in 2010. At the time when we showed title winning 2 points per game form, with 30 points from 15 games, the captain led from the front, at an unprecedented level. He finished with 7 individual Man of the Match awards, which is more than any other player. To clumsily extend that going down with the ship metaphor, it was a heroic death in victorious battle in the mould of Nelson against the French in 1805. He might as well have screamed "The Yellow Army expects that every man will do his duty" in the Bromley dressing room before the game. If he signs a new contract in the summer then it deserves to come with the promotion from Captain to Admiral.
There is however, one more character still to mention. Sadly I don't know enough about history to extend the Trafalgar casting any further, although James Hurst might make a nice Napoleon and Paul Cox could easily be Captain Mainwaring.
Dan Butler was in second place at the three-quarter mark and so in pole position to challenge Nathan Smith. Having just described MacDonald as Nelson it seems unfair to cast Butler as a tortoise, but Aesop would be proud that his plot line stands up to modern challenges. For in this story Courtney Richards was the first hare that ran off into the lead, and then James Hurst was the second hare who overtook him and did exactly the same. Then Nathan Smith timed his own haring much better, because he led going into the home straight. Angus MacDonald never did quite manage to become a hare, and is therefore probably some kind of rabbit, which on the face of it does appear to be quite a demotion in only two paragraphs.
Dan Butler is of course is the tortoise in this fable. He set off steadily under Paul Cox, only had a one match toilet break for five yellow cards and plodded on steadily towards the finish line. He was nominated for points in 39 of the 45 matches he played in, far more than any other player. As a result of this, he picked up points consistently across the season, whether we won, drew or lost.
At the time Nathan Smith's season finished after 42 games, he was on 135 points, with Dan Butler second on 125 and Angus MacDonald third on 116. As documented, MacDonald then picked up 12 from his next two to finish on 128. With four games to play, Butler needed 11 points to overtake Smith and after MacDonald's season also finished early he was the only one left racing at the end, just as Aesop predicted.
Against Altrincham, Butler finished 5th, earning 2 points and bringing his target down to 9 points from the final three games. At Bromley he was 3rd, bringing 4 more points and making the target 5 from the last two. In the final home game vs Barrow, he was 5th, scoring 2 more points.
And so going into the final game of the season, he was on 133 points, still 2 behind Nathan Smith. If he finished in the top 4 players then he would get the points he needed to win. But just one injury, sending off, tactical change, sentimental playing of Nicholson at left back or poor performance could still take it away.
At Guiseley he finished 3rd, bringing him a final 4 points and enough for the crown.
If you want to see this visually, I have tried my best to show how the race developed...
This is the 6th season that this feature has run, and the first in which the winner has not matched the official fan voted award. Even in the one previous season in which it went to the final game, 2011/12, Lee Mansell beat Bobby Olejnik to win both. In part, this comes down to the timing of the votes, as Smith was leading at the time they were taken. However, the basis of this award is to remember those players who play well steadily across the season and negate any possible bias that comes with fan voted awards, either for favourite players, rewarding performances towards the end of the season or memorable moments far higher than other games. I think it is therefore quite fitting that Dan Butler wins this award, that has a premise of rewarding the 46 games equally, having scored points more consistently than any other player.
Also interesting with Dan Butler is the fact that he played for more than a third of the season out of position in midfield. In the 16 games that Nicholson played at left back and Butler was used in midfield, he scored 42 points, an average of 2.63 points per game. His record at left back was 95 points from 29 games, 3.28 per match. Playing in midfield, he was subject to the inconsistent scoring that players higher up the pitch tend to suffer from. 3 of his 5 Man of the Match awards came from this spell, but he also failed to score at all in 6 of the 16. Given that he scored points in 39 from 45 overall, this means he was nominated to score points from all 29 games that he played at left back, as well as in 10 of the 16 in midfield.
Finishing Positions
1. Dan Butler (137)
2. Nathan Smith (135)
3. Angus MacDonald (128)
4. Courtney Richards (86)
5. James Hurst (69)
6. Durrell Berry (67)
7. Tyrone Marsh (45)
8. Andre Wright (40)
9. Aman Verma (37)
10. Danny Racchi (36)
11. Nathan Blissett (32)
12. Iffy Allen (31)
13. Alex Fisher (27)
14. Fabian Speiss (26)
15. Sean Harrad (25)
=16. Exodus Geohaghon (24)
=16. Brendan Moore (24)
18. Sam Chaney (19)
19. Ben Gerring (15)
=20. Dan Lavercombe (14)
=20. Josh Rees (14)
=22. Toby Ajala (12)
=22. Luke Young (12)
24. Kevin Nicholson (11)
25. Josh Carmichael (9)
26. Joe Quigley (7)
=27. Louis Briscoe (5)
=27. Shepherd Murombedzi (5)
=27. Waide Fairhurst (5)
30. Malachi Levelle-Moore (4)
31. Simon Heslop (3)
32. Harry Hickford (2)
33. Fergus Bell (1)
Man of the Match Winners
Angus MacDonald - 7
Nathan Smith - 6
Dan Butler - 5
James Hurst - 5
Courtney Richards - 5
Tyrone Marsh - 4
Durrell Berry - 3
Exodus Geohaghon - 2
Andre Wright - 2
Iffy Allen - 1
Sean Harrad - 1
Dan Lavercombe - 1
Brendan Moore - 1
Danny Racchi - 1
Fabian Speiss - 1
Luke Young - 1
Player of the Month Winners
August - Courtney Richards
September - James Hurst
October - Durrell Berry
November - Andre Wright
December - Dan Butler
January - Nathan Smith
February - Dan Butler
March - Angus MacDonald
April - Angus MacDonald
I hope you have enjoyed the write up of the season. Thanks as always to those who vote in the threads and create the data. In the next issue of Highway to Hele there will be a few other bits of analysis, including a look at how the new signings in January, who have been largely ignored above, compare to other January signings, loanees and short-terms deals from recent seasons.
