This season, we had 11 players going over this figure (including substitutes), with 7 appearing in more than 40 games. Three players achieved the full 46 starts (Moore, Rowe-Turner and McGinty), which no player had done in five years, since Kevin Nicholson (and also Bobby Olejnik) was a full-time player in 2011/12. Jamie Reid also played his part in all fixtures, with 31 starts and 15 substitute appearances. Full player stats for this can be seen here: http://www.torquayfanstats.com/season1617
Whichever way you look at it, there were several players in with a shout of winning it. Aman Verma was the August Player of the Month and held his lead for a while, but fell away and soon there were 4 players vying for top spot: Young (53), Moore (51), Reid (50) and McGinty (46).
Brendan Moore was Player of the Month for December, which coincided with Luke Young picking up a nasty injury at Tranmere, and when the new year was rung in, was in the coveted spot with 79 points - Young (68), McGinty (58) and an in-form Dan Sparkes (55) were the closest challengers to him.
Luke Young returned in late January, having not scored a point in eight matches, but soon returned to his usual form. By the time he won the MOTM award in the final game of February he was level with Sparkes in taking the fight to Brendan Moore: Moore (95), Sparkes (86), Young (86), McGinty (80). Despite the differences in appearances, it was now, just as the year before, a 4 horse race.
A bad March points wise for McGinty meant that he was also out of the race. With ten games to go, things had never been closer at the top:
Luke Young (104)
Brendan Moore (101)
Dan Sparkes (100)
Disaster soon struck though for Dan Sparkes, and injury meant that the 108 points he was on at the end of March was actually to be his final total. Brendan Moore was still picking up points occasionally, but could not match the form of Luke Young. Having been right in the mix at the end of February, when needed the most, he was Player of the Month in both March and April. His winning margin in the end was 27 points, but it had been a close battle for much of the season.
Special mentions do have to go to the challengers of Moore, Sparkes and McGinty. All of them broke through the 100 point barrier, and come out with a lot of credit. Moore's total of 117 has only been bettered twice by goalkeepers (Bobby Olejnik - 135 in 2011/12 and Michael Poke - 128 in 2012/13). Sparkes missed games through injury in both November and April, and with only 35 starts he was denied the chance to score a lot of points. McGinty was incredibly consistent in his point scoring - having been voted Man of the Match in only one of the 46 games, he did not have big scoring weeks, but was nominated to score points in 35 separate games, more than any other player, and was within the top 5 names in 30 of the 46 fixtures.
A mention also has to go to Kieffer Moore. He only played 4 games for us, but was voted Man of the Match in all four of them, giving him a points per game score that will never be beaten. This also shows how players who arrive on loan or later in the year can influence these totals, as even if they don't win the awards themselves, the players here throughout the season compete with the other players on the pitch that day for points, and it's the total of all 46 games that determines the winner and each player's score. Jared Hodgkiss winning the February Player of the Month is another example.
The final mention though has to go to a deserved winner in Luke Young. He himself missed a run of games through injury, and this denied him a chance to fight for the top places on the all-time leaderboard. His 144 points however is the 5th highest total, and one of those higher was his own total in 2014/15.
Final Finishing Positions
1. Luke Young - 144
2. Brendan Moore - 117
3. Dan Sparkes - 108
4. Sean McGinty - 100
5. Jamie Reid - 89
6. Aman Verma - 79
7. Brett Williams - 77
8. Lathaniel Rowe-Turner - 64
9. Courtney Richards - 52
10. Nathan Blissett - 41
11. Ruairi Keating - 37
12. Giancarlo Gallifuoco - 35
=13. David Fitzpatrick - 34
=13. Joe Ward - 34
15. Damon Lathrope - 29
16. Kieffer Moore - 28
=17. Sam Chaney - 27
=17. Jared Hodgkiss - 27
19. Ben Gerring - 26
20. Myles Anderson - 17
21. Jordan Lee - 16
22. Sean Harrad - 6
=23. Jamie Chamberlain - 4
=23. Paul Rooney - 4
=25. Kevin Nicholson - 1
=25. Aarran Racine - 1
Individual Man of the Match Winners
Brendan Moore - 7
Luke Young - 7
Jamie Reid - 6
Kieffer Moore - 4
Dan Sparkes - 4
Brett Williams - 3
Ben Gerring - 2
Damon Lathrope - 2
Lathaniel Rowe-Turner - 2
Nathan Blissett - 1
Dave Fitzpatrick - 1
Jared Hodgkiss - 1
Ruairi Keating - 1
Jordan Lee - 1
Sean McGinty - 1
Courtney Richards - 1
Aman Verma - 1
Joe Ward - 1
Player of the Month
August - Aman Verma
September - Luke Young
October - Brendan Moore
November - Kieffer Moore
December - Brendan Moore
January - Dave Fitzpatrick
February - Jared Hodgkiss
March - Luke Young
April - Luke Young
I'll be updating various pages of the Torquay Fan Stats site over the coming days with 2016/17 figures, 17/18 mileages and other pages. There will also be some new pages and features coming soon, and a slight change in layout. The site is intended to be a resource for TUFC fans, so any comments, ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The summer break is probably a good time to work on some new material.
You can follow the Twiter account @torquayfanstats for On This Day material and for updates to the main site. You can get in touch with me there, via PM here or by email to [email protected]
Finally, thank-you to everyone who has posted their own replies after they have been to a game. Without this, this feature could not exist, and I appreciate that the last few years have seen some very depressing games and it can be difficult to come on here afterwards when emotions are high. This format relies on all 46 games counting the same, and with 7 years of data now to compare and contrast I think it is worth sticking with.
