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With the season reaching April, the Upminster Daggers took time to decide on their Player of the Season, in what promises to be an historic year.
With the team having played so well all season, picking out individuals is always a tough choice. And the strength of the team as a whole is shown in the fact that 9 different players received votes.
To decide the award we adopted a Eurovision Song Contest style system!!!! Well, it was a bit like that but not really as it was a bit simpler and didn't take 4 hours each!!!!!
8 of us were asked to vote but Skippy didn't bother!!!!! We could have asked more people to vote as many more have been to games with us, but we felt that people voting needed to have seen a fair number of games to make an informed decision.
The people voting were then asked to pick their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices. 3 points were given for a first choice, 2 for a second and 1 for a third.
As I say, 9 players received votes, which from only 7 people, shows how well the squad performed as a whole, as that is half the total squad number and is at least one vote for nearly all the players who have been with us all season.
In reverse order the results of the Upminster Daggers Player of the Season were as follows:
Sam Sloma 1
Anwar Uddin 1
Jake Leberl 2
Sam Saunders 2
Craig Mackail-Smith 2
 Tony Roberts 3 - Robbo has once again been outstanding between the sticks. Not only that but he is an inspiration for the rest of the squad. His antics with home and away supporters also add to what he offers. His performances in the games at Grays, Stevenage and Rushden were crucial to us picking up away points.
 Scott Griffiths 3 - Scotty has been outstanding all season. Him being found and then turned into a 1st team player has to be one of the biggest successes of John Still's second period with the club. There are not many faults in Scott's game. He is quick, strong in the tackle, gets forward well and for his size is amazingly good in the air.
 Danny Foster 11 - Danny has also had an outstanding season. When he first came into the side a couple of years back he played well on his debut at Northwich but the next game he was given the run around by Barnet and we wondered who Stilly had bought in!!! However, since then he has improved with every game, and this season he has hardly had a bad game. He epitomises many of the characteristics of the whole squad.
 Paul Benson 17 - What more can be said about Benno. So far he has 25 goals and by the end of the season this will be nearer 30. Again, for John Still to turn a "Park" footballer into the Conference's leading scorer is an amazing effort. Last year Paul looked like he had some talent but you couldn't see where the goals would come from. This season it is a totally different story. Benno is still improving, and in the last couple of months he has looked stronger with his back to goal and when holding the ball up. Hopefully Benno will continue to bang the goals in next season in the Football League.
So there you have it. I don't think many people will argue with the results of the top 3 (well 4). Saying that, the key to this Season has been the team ethic as a whole and the award could have been given to many players. As well as those mentioned above others have done well in a shorter space of time such as Shane, Stan, Strevs and Mark Arber, and others such as Glen Southam and Dave Rainford have been consistent and hard working throughout.
Hopefully Thommo will let us present the award to Paul before the end of the Season, otherwise we will have to send it to him through the post!!!!
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