Player of the Year

It's Player of the Year time again and surely there can only be one winner aka Darren Bent. Of course there have been games where he's been somewhat anonymous but he's surely proved he's a world class finisher when given the opportunity, and his general demeanour, work-rate and attitude suggest a maturity beyond his years.

However, it's fair to assume that young Darren won't garner every vote cast, so New York Addick will attempt to assess his competition. In my view, runner-up should go to Thomas Myhre whose superb performances albeit only since Xmas, can be proved in purely statistical terms: during our first 16 games (during which Thomas played no part), we conceded 26 goals; during the subsequent 16 games (in which Thomas played a full part), we conceded just 16 goals.

Other likely vote-winners will include Hermann Hreidarsson and Chris Perry. The Herminator had a dodgy period around Xmas but he's generally been a solid and combative defender - indeed, the only disappointment has been his lack of goals given he is clearly the main target at set-pieces. Perry meanwhile has played fewer games but he usually sums up the qualities I always seek in a defender: you never notice him!

Luke Young has had another consistent season and fully justified his run in the England side. Meanwhile Radostin Kishishev will attract votes from those who value his undoubted effort despite his lack of quality. Chris Powell has proved his early-season detractors wrong with a series of performances that defy his age, and surely a coaching role beckons for this most loyal servant.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this season will be the wanton lack of votes cast for surely our three most talented first-teamers, namely Darren Ambrose, Jerome Thomas and Dennis Rommedahl. Each has been hampered by injuries, whilst Curbs' conservative team selection inevitably sees them omitted on a regular basis. However, surely the future of the club lies at the feet of them and their ilk, and one has to hope the entertainment factor might return next season.

Many players have played part-time roles, often in an efficient way (eg. Jonathan Spector, Shaun Bartlett, Matt Holland, Bryan Hughes, Jay Bothroyd, Stefan Andersen, Jonathan Fortune), but none have been able to make a big enough impact to trouble the vote-counters. Of course we lost two key and often inspired players in Danny Murphy and Alexei Smertin, and they both would certainly have attracted considerable voting interest had they not concluded their futures lay elsewhere. Whilst the departure of Smertin was somewhat understandable, one has to hope Murphy might be having second thoughts as he runs his wife's newspaper column through the spell-checker.

So there you have it. "The votes from the New York jury are: 1st. Darren Bent, 2nd Thomas Myhre, 3rd Hermann Hreidarsson"