A Player of the Month catch up plus Fantasy Football. Like I’d forgotten.
You will recall, back in the mists of time of last October, Stuart Holden was pronounced player of the month. This followed the shock announcement the previous month that Zat Knight had carried all before him to take the player of the month for September.
Then, all went quiet. Not because we thought that Holden would just walk away with the rest of the season, but because we simply kept on forgetting to do it.
So here, as it were, is a catch up to the end of February.
November: Stuart Holden
No great shocks here as the Yank took two player of the matches, against Everton and Wolves, and basically ran the show from the beginning of the month until the end. Whilst the press were slavering over the goalscoring exploits of Elmander and SuperKev, Bolton fans knew who was pulling the strings.
Elmander was second and Lee was third.
December: Stuart Holden
Starting to get a little boring now as Holden took player of the month for the third month running. Player of the match, and scorer of the winning goal, against Blackburn, he was also player of the match in the narrow loss to Chelsea. Amazingly, he was run close by Matty Taylor who came second and Gary Cahill, who was third. Man of the Matches were spread around with Jussi, Big Ivan, Lee and Taylor also voted as the best player on the park in matches.
January: Mark Davies
Blimey, someone else at last. Just as Holden went slightly off the ball, only picking up one third place, the smaller Davies took over the mantle from his central midfield partner. Two man of the match performances, one against Wigan in the cup and the other as one of few players to come out of the Nat Lofthouse tribute game with the ability to hold their head up, he also played well in the league game against Wigan.
Second was Rodrigo Moreno, leading us to ask why he still isn’t getting more game time, and third was Jussi, putting in a man of the match performance against Stoke, despite losing 2-0.
February: Daniel Sturridge
The revelation of the season, the man that Chelsea have let go on loan so they can shoehorn £50million non scorer Fernando Torres into their team, Sturridge is February’s player of the month, despite being cup tied and unable to play against Fulham and only coming off the bench against Wolves. Man of the match, and rightly so, against Spurs, four goals in four games makes him the Premier League player of the month, never mind Bolton’s. That said, Mark Davies ran him close, despite being left on the bench for a long time once Newcastle had been reduced to ten men last weekend and, therefore, not gaining a vote. The central defensive partnership of Gary Cahill and David Wheater both picked up a man of the match, against Everton and Newcastle respectively, and came joint third.
So, with three consecutive player of the months, Stuart Holden still leads the way for the player of the year award. Come back soon, say the beginning of April, to see if anyone can catch him up.
As for the Fantasy League, Gill Ashton and her Platt Vegas Allstars still lead the way, twenty two points ahead of Phil Caine and his Heskey’s Legacy. The team at twenty sixth are picking up mind.
Month winners (No prize for this, just the kudos of having your name here).
August: The High Foxes – Andy Scoble – 213 points
September: Platt Vegas Allstars – Gill Ashton – 172 points
October: JP’s All Stars – John Polding – 231 points
November: Stan & Ed’s Boys – Richard Nuttall – 282 points
December: Super Spartans – Neil Lofthouse – 257 points
January: Heskey’s Legacy – Phil Caine – 295 points
February: Face’s XI – Mark Partington – 290 points
Congrats to all. In a few years, you’ll be able to look back on this and show the grandkids.
We’re back tomorrow with the Villa Report. COYWM!