Strap's Stats!
Player of the Season Through the years
Apologies for being a bit quiet recently - been trying to move house, but no joy, so it'll have to go on hold until after Christmas. Piece of p*ss selling, bugger to buy anything decent! Anyone got anything decent to sell in Hertford, drop me a mail!
Right back to business. I thought of doing a bit on our fantastic League Cup exploits following our creaming of Leeds! My brother in law managed to get to the game, and said we were the only team in it in the second half! So it was off to EP to witness the ritual slaughter of struggling Ipswich then!?! HA! That knocked the motivation a bit, and coupled to the realisation that the LC is not really our cup of tea, I thought bugger it. Will do piece later on in the season, say when we've reached the semis!!!
Richard Preston dropped a note about Players of the Year. "I seem to remember from my youth that Steve Death won the prize most seasons, and Steve Richardson had a run in the eighties. Do you have a full list of Players of the year. Did God Friday ever get the fans vote?"
Luckily this kind of info isn't too hard to find, so for all the saddos like me, here it is :
Since 1965-66, the Reading Chronicle has conducted a poll among its readers to select the RFC Player of the Year. More recently, this has been undertaken by phone I think, but stand to be corrected. The winners have been :
1965-66 Jimmy Wheeler Forward 1966-67 George Harris Forward 1967-68 Mike Dixon Goalkeeper 1968-69 Peter Silvester Forward 1969-70 Steve Death Goalkeeper - whilst still a loan player !! 1970-71 Terry Bell Forward - despite scoring the OG that sent us down to Div 4 for the 1st time in our history - way to go Tel!!! 1971-72 Gordon Cumming Forward 1972-73 Steve Death Goalkeeper 1973-74 Steve Death Goalkeeper 1974-75 Robin Friday Forward 1975-76 Robin Friday Forward 1976-77 Steve Death Goalkeeper 1977-78 Ritchie Bowman Midfield 1978-79 Ritchie Bowman Midfield 1979-80 Mark White Defender 1980-81 Steve Hetzke Defender 1981-82 Jerry Williams Defender/Midfield 1982-83 Steve Richardson Defender 1983-84 Steve Richardson Defender 1984-85 Steve Wood Defender 1985-86 Steve Wood Defender 1986-87 Kevin Bremner Forward (Jerry Williams 2nd, Colin Bailie 3rd) 1987-88 Steve Francis Goalkeeper (Keith Curle 2nd, Michael Gilkes 3rd) 1988-89 Trevor Senior Forward (Stuart Beavon 2nd, Mick Tait 3rd) 1989-90 Martin Hicks Defender 1990-91 Keith McPherson Defender 1991-92 Mick Gooding Midfield 1992-93 Mick Gooding Midfield 1993-94 Dylan Kerr Defender 1994-95 Shaka Hislop Goalkeeper 1995-96 Mick Gooding Midfield (Phil Parkinson 2nd, Jimmy Quinn 3rd) 1996-97 Trevor Morley Forward (Keith McPherson 2nd, James Lambert Young PoY)Good to see Micky Gooding getting due notice 3 years in 5, but find it a bit stange that Jimmy Quinn and Michael Gilkes didn't ever get the award. If any two players deserved it they did!
Also noteworthy is the fact that our last 3 decent keepers have all been awarded the honour! What odds on Steve Mautone being the next? He's certainly got the rapport! As "Steve" appears to be the most common first name of all the winners, I think I'll back him for this year - anyone running a book?
Forwards seem a bit thin on the ground, with Trevor Morley being the first this decade, and the way he's going at the moment, must be a good outside bet again this year.
Hope this is of some interest Richard. If anyone is sad enough to provide me with the missing 2nd and 3rd placed worthies, I'll add it to the list! Now, who is the player to appear most times in the top 3, without ever winning the damn thing?! I don't know to be fair, but having asked the question, I bloody WANT to know!! What a sad git. If I can't get anything to HNA before Christmas, hope you all have a good one, and see you at EP for Wolves (YES!!), Loftus Rd for QPR (same as last year please lads!), and EP for WBA.
Final point, if you spot any glaring errors or corrections, please let me know.
Strap