Fan Voted Player of the Year + Seasonal Stats

Post by **Gulliball** » 07 May 2018, 18:27

Well, the season is over and *spoiler alert* Luke Young has won Player of the Year based on the fan votes from the 46 games added together. In fact, the only real question was the margin of victory, and finishing 48 points ahead of Sean McGinty was the highest margin to date - beating the 36 points between Krystian Pearce and Aaron Downes in 2013/14. That, like this, was a relegation season and that does tend to bring out some extremes.

41 players were used during the season - the highest figure for more than 20 years, and of these, 36 different players were nominated for points over the course of the season - the highest of the eight seasons this feature has been running.

For the seventh time in eight years, the winner was the same as the official Player of the Year award run by the club. The only season with different winners was 2015/16 when Nathan Smith won the official award, but Dan Butler pipped him (137 vs 135) to win the fan voted award. Thank-you to everyone who has replied to the Man of the Match threads over the season and kept this going - I know it's been hard at times and there's not been much to celebrate, but I really do appreciate it.

This was a broken season, with players signed by one manager, who managed four of the 46 games. Then six games under a caretaker, before 36 games with a new manager. Due to the nature of this format, you've got to feature in the majority of games to have a realistic chance, and Young and McGinty were the only two players to be ever-present.

Ryan Clarke and Ruairi Keating were 1st and 2nd at the end of August, but probably fell foul of the change in management. Ryan Higgins also made a strong start, but his season was ended early. By the end of the season, Dorel's 34 starts was the 3rd highest amongst the squad, and only five players started more than 24 games. That means potentially there were five winners, but two well ahead.

1. Luke Young (149)
2. Sean McGinty (101)
3. Liam Davis (94)
4. Vincent Dorel (92)
5. Elliott Romain (61)
6. George Dowling (60)
7. Jamie Reid (57)
8. Josh Gowling (54)
9. Ryan Higgins (45)
10. Ruairi Keating (43)

Full figures for the season: http://www.torquayfanstats.com/poty-201718

As it was, Luke Young played more games, and scored more heavily than anyone else, putting the competition to bed quite early. His points total of 149 points is the 4th highest to date, below his 2014/15 season and ahead of 2016/17. Guy Branston remains in the overall lead from the 2010/11 season.

The points-per-game is where loan signings and mid-season arrivals get a chance. Elliot Romain and Rhys Healey both made a big impact in their time here and slot into the all-time leaderboard.

Having been here for four seasons, Luke Young is now leading many of the cumulative figures since 2010, ahead of Downes and Mansell.
Full POTY stats: http://www.torquayfanstats.com/player-of-the-year

Away from player of the season, Rhys Healey and Jamie Reid were joint top-scorers with six goals each. Luke Young had most assists (11) as well as goals + assists (16).

Full player stats: http://www.torquayfanstats.com/season1718

The average attendance fell to 1732 (1590 home and 142 away). The average away following was 166, with TUFC outnumbering the opposition 15 times.

2017/18 Attendance figures: http://www.torquayfanstats.com/201718-game-by-game

This was the 4th season in a row and 8th in the last nine that we've taken more to the opposition's ground in the majority of games.

Seasonal attendances comparison: http://www.torquayfanstats.com/seasonal-attendances

Work on some longer-term, historical projects will be done over the summer & as ever, if you have any ideas, suggestions, comments or feedback, you can reply here, via twitter or email [email protected]

The twitter page will continue over the summer, but may quieten down in June/July when not so much happened on that particular date. For example, for 7th May:

A hat-trick by Albert Shelley cannot prevent a 6-3 defeat at QPR (1938) For nearly 80 years this remained the only hat-trick scored by a TUFC player in defeat, until Rhys Healey vs Guiseley. There have now been 102 hat-tricks - W98 D2 L2

https://x.com/torquayfanstats

lucy6lucy · Post by **lucy6lucy** » 07 May 2018, 18:40

Great stats gulliball

Rjc70 · Post by **Rjc70** » 07 May 2018, 23:08

Brilliant work. Thank you, Gulliball.

MellowYellow · Post by **MellowYellow** » 08 May 2018, 00:24

Good work Gulliball. I notice, with interest, that 9 out of the 10 players on the list were all signed prior and during our first 10 games when we were 9 points behind Tranmere in the league. Our present manager does get one of his 22 signings on the list from his 36 games in charge namely, Elliott Romain who deserves his acclaim.

Post by **Scott Brehaut** » 08 May 2018, 13:57

Brilliant as always Gulliball

PhilGull · Post by **PhilGull** » 08 May 2018, 14:45

Interesting that defensive players feature heavily in the end of season awards but it's attacking players who fair better in the point per game table.
I guess it's a sign of the times that defensive players are seen more by the fans and a sad reminder that Zebroski was probably the last properly exciting attacking talent that we had.

Post by **Gulliball** » 08 May 2018, 19:35

The positional breakdowns has been quite interesting over time. I would agree that to win the cumulative points total you do need to be scoring points more often than not - but that was really the whole point of this experiment initially, to count all 46 games equally and not rely on selective memories. The origin was when I used to run end of season awards on this site, with voting at the end of season - Mustapha Carayol won a handful in 2009/10, having only turned up for about the last 10 games of the season and I started the MOTM threads from the start of 2010/11 to see if doing something over 46 games with equal weighting would produce any interesting results.

From the 8 seasons of data to date, it seems like centre back is the optimal position to play in, and I suppose you are always going to be in the game at centre back to give yourself a chance. But perhaps we have we just had some good centre backs in the last 8 years in Branston, Downes, Saah, Pearce, Smith, MacDonald? Some positions have done better than others, but ultimately I think quality does stand out whatever the position. Wide players do tend to be more hit and miss, but Dan Butler and Chris Zebroski had terrific seasons and scored heavily enough to be 3rd and 8th respectively in the all time list. Goalkeepers haven't always done too well, but Bobby Olejnik was only three points behind Lee Mansell in 2011/12 and nearly won that year, and Michael Poke had an excellent season the following year.

The real anomaly is probably up front - we've not had a 20 goal a year striker in the last eight years, so Rene Howe tops the chart, but there is not much behind. Usually scoring in a game would guarantee scoring points, so strikers should be able to benefit from that if we ever did have another 20+ goal a year man. In recent years we've struggled to get players out of single figures and the best strikers were on loan such as Moore, Coulthirst and Romain. If any of them hung around for a full season and showed that form over the full distance then I would imagine they'd be right up there.

The other little quirk is that it can sometimes be better to be a good player in a bad side. There is only one man of the match each game and a finite number of points available, which are shared amongst the whole squad. A side winning games will get more players nominated and thus have more points to be spread around, but there will be more players to spread them around. Kevin Nicholson came 10th in 2011/12 when he got into the divisional team of the year at left back - had he done that in 2015/16 he might have had a score more like Dan Butler that year - and Eunan O'Kane finished 4th and 6th in his two full seasons here. I won't imagine what it would be like with him here now, that's too depressing...

I would say though that the good seasons still do see the highest totals and so it's better for the winner to be in one of those. The all time team below only has Anthony O'Connor from the 2013/14 relegation season (and he only played 30 games then - right back has just been a very bad area in the last 8 years) and no-one made it in from this year. O'Connor, Ajala, O'Kane and Howe are most vulnerable if we get another good right back, winger or attacking player in the next few years. Going down to 42 games next season isn't ideal though.

Post by **Southampton Gull** » 08 May 2018, 22:37

Now that's a team I'd pay good money to watch!

merse btpir · Post by **merse btpir** » 09 May 2018, 05:50

How can an 'All Time Team' only be drawn from the last seven (and definitely) worst and lowest levels of our history and be called ALL time?

Be obsessed with stats drawn only from that period by all means, but be aware; indeed very aware ~ that they are drawn from the biggest pile of shit performances in that history.....we'll be calling them legends next

westyorkshiregull · Post by **westyorkshiregull** » 09 May 2018, 06:31

Fair point merse. Some of them would have struggled to make the reserves in the western league's years ago. Give me a Phil Lloyd , Mark loram or a Colin Anderson anytime over some of these flops.

Post by **Gulliball** » 09 May 2018, 18:16

Thank-you. Just in case it does need clarifying, the 'all-time' team relates to the eight season this feature has been running, as it would be slightly difficult to go back before it started. Nor have I appointed myself the sole arbiter of who would be in a Torquay United all-time time - it's a bit of fun with the data available over the last eight seasons and is growing each year. You've got to start somewhere, and for this feature that was August 2010 - it's already seen some comparative highs in that time, such as play-offs, Eunan O'Kane and 998 minutes without conceding, so I wouldn't brush over the whole period as shite, but nevertheless there's not much that I can personally do about that. Maybe Gary Owers will sign some more deserving players this summer.

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 09 May 2018, 22:47

Gulliball wrote: ↑09 May 2018, 18:16 Thank-you. Just in case it does need clarifying, the 'all-time' team relates to the eight season this feature has been running, as it would be slightly difficult to go back before it started. Nor have I appointed myself the sole arbiter of who would be in a Torquay United all-time time - it's a bit of fun with the data available over the last eight seasons and is growing each year. You've got to start somewhere, and for this feature that was August 2010 - it's already seen some comparative highs in that time, such as play-offs, Eunan O'Kane and 998 minutes without conceding, so I wouldn't brush over the whole period as shite, but nevertheless there's not much that I can personally do about that. Maybe Gary Owers will sign some more deserving players this summer.

Although not worded quite correctly, anyone with a grain of common sense would have known by 'all time' you meant during the eight seasons you have been doing the stats. Brilliant stats, too - as always, they make very interesting reading. Thank you for providing these details each season.

merse btpir · Post by **merse btpir** » 10 May 2018, 00:11

I was questioning the naming of the classification if you care to read my words more carefully ~ it's nothing to do with 'common sense' it's to do with being erudite. :slap:

Post by **Gulliball** » 10 May 2018, 00:59

Well our football club is 119 years and 10 days old, so to compile a true all-time team would be quite some feat. Even if you have watched TUFC back into the 1950s you've missed out on 50+ years so couldn't offer an opinion. Not to mention that such a thing would of course also be entirely subjective and utterly impossible given that there is no correct answer...

I am satisfied that from the various clues throughout the thread and the website, for example stating that this feature began in 2010 and the fact that every single person included in every section is from the eight seasons since 2010, most fans will be able to work out that these figures are solely for the last eight seasons, rather than wondering how on earth Jamie Reid is included and Robin Stubbs isn't.

WHG · Post by **WHG** » 10 May 2018, 04:45

Gulliball wrote: ↑10 May 2018, 00:59 Well our football club is 119 years and 10 days old, so to compile a true all-time team would be quite some feat. Even if you have watched TUFC back into the 1950s you've missed out on 50+ years so couldn't offer an opinion. Not to mention that such a thing would of course also be entirely subjective and utterly impossible given that there is no correct answer...

I am satisfied that from the various clues throughout the thread and the website, for example stating that this feature began in 2010 and the fact that every single person included in every section is from the eight seasons since 2010, most fans will be able to work out that these figures are solely for the last eight seasons, rather than wondering how on earth Jamie Reid is included and Robin Stubbs isn't.

Maybe in future you might need to explain it slightly more simplistically for the ignoramuses on here.

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