Well
the season is almost over and the votes are all in and the site members
have chosen who they deem to be their player of the year. It was a
pretty tough decision with the majority of you opting for one of our new
signings Greg Shields or Stevie Fulton, but there can be only one
winner. The biggest turnaround this season was the failure of fans
favourite Freddy Dindeleux to record a single vote, but then again he
has spent a fair bit of the season injured and is only just recovering
his indifferent form. Here's how you voted...
8th...
New signing Barry McLaughlin made a steady start to his Rugby
Park career only to see injury ruin his chance of a sustained run in the
first team. Signed from St Mirren for the princely sum of £30,000 by
Jim Jefferies (the only cash he's spent on transfers), Barry has proved
to be a bargain buy from what we've seen so far. Certainly enough for 1%
of you to vote for him despite his lack of matches. Okay, 1% may not
seem like an extraordinary amount of votes but it wasn't bad considering
that more people voted in this year's play of the year poll than ever
before, three times as many in fact, well over 500...not bad considering
the apathy associated with the Killie faithful of late.
7th...
Chris Innes is starting to look as if he has come of age. Jim
Jefferies has used his strength and arial ability to our advantage this
season and he has become a first team regular, thanks to the gaffer preferring
to adopt a 3-5-2 system, utilising three centre halves. To be fair
Chris' distribution could still do with a bit of work but as long as he
continues to get in timely tackles and keep his lines clear then he will
manage to keep his place in one of the meanest defences in the league.
Chris scored a few more votes than fellow defender Barry McLaughlin so
although he also claimed only 1% of the vote he claims the spot above be
default.
6th...
What a season it's been for striker Gary McSwegan. Pilloried
right left and centre by all and sundry (okay, not all of you) after
signing on a free and putting in several duff performances, then
regaining his form and his goal scoring ability and getting a contract
extension. Sweggers is one of the few Killie players in recent seasons
to have taken his goals tally into double figures and wrote himself into
the history books with his four in one game against Hibernian. He has
been offered a contract for next season already and I'm sure that none
of us would deny him that. Gary garnered 2% of the overall vote but if
he had found his touch earlier in the season I've no doubt he'd have
finished higher in the placings!
5th...
What price Andy McLaren still to be wearing the stripes this
time next season? The Rumour Mill would have us believe that he has
rejected Killie's offer of a new deal and will be signing for the
Pars...I for one hope that The Rumour Mill is wrong in this instance.
McLaren is one of those players who can turn a game. Consistency seems
to be his biggest problem though but I think that he more than makes up
for that with the passion he has for the game, the flip side of that
however being that when his head is down it's well down. One thing is
for sure, Andy can get the fans going, whether they are shouting at him
or shouting with him. 4% of you voted him as your player of the year.
4th...
Kris Boyd is one of the favourites to win our Young Player of
the Year award but there is no doubting his inclusion in this list after
his contribution this season. To date Kris is the club's top scorer,
another into double figures which must be some kind of record on it's
own, which is pretty damn good considering the amount of games he's
started on the bench. People criticise JJ for not starting with the big
man but from day one the gaffer stated that he was going to use him
sparingly to help bring him on...and it seems to be working. His
determination to prove himself after coming off the bench has cost many
a team points this season, and given them to us. Watch him fly next
season! Kris scored 6% of the vote.
3rd...
Another of the top contenders for our Young Player of the Year
award who thoroughly deserves his inclusion in this list. Peter has been
a consistent performer wherever he's been asked to play and although
he's seen by many, including national coach Rainer Bonhoff, to be more
suited to the right side of the park, he's proved that he can turn it on
down the left as well. His form this season has merited his inclusion in
the Scotland Under 21 squad and many would say that he should be
knocking on Berti Vogts door before many of the current crop of
internationalists, and I couldn't agree more. He looks destined for
'bigger' things so we should enjoy him while we can. He claimed 15% of
the votes.
2nd...
Greg Shields was the worthy recipient of 25% of your votes this
season and was neck and neck with the eventual winner for the majority
of the time during the voting process. Shields is without a doubt one of
the best defenders in the SPL and his omission from the Scotland squad
is nothing less than criminal. JJ persuaded Greg to leave Premiership
Charlton to come to Killie, without having to part with a single brass
farthing for him, undoubtedly the coup of the century! Shieldsy has
three years left on his contract and we've no doubt that he will feature
heavily in future player of the year award polls...if we can keep a hold
of him that long...here's hoping.
1st...
Some bright spark said at the start of the season "He's
a right good player and I think he'll be in the running for a few player
of the year awards come May, in fact let's push the boat out and sponsor
him". That would have been me then! As most of you will have
guessed by now (especially after seeing that Shields was second) the
killiefc.com Player of the Year for Season 2002-2003 is midfielder Stevie
Fulton, sponsored by us of course.
No
one can grudge 'Baggio' this award and we are sure that ours wont be his
only accolade this season. Last year we were relegated to the bottom
half of the league after the split...now we are still in with a (slim)
chance of Europe with only a few games remaining. The transformation
from pretenders to contenders must be attributed to the leadership of
Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown, but make no mistake about the major part
that Stevie Fulton has played in the reversal of our fortunes.
When
JJ took over as manager one of the first things he did was approach
Stevie to follow him to Rugby Park, and its now obvious to us why he
did. Fulton was always one of those players we loved to hate, simply
because he wasn't playing for us. Now the boot is on the other foot and
opposition fans are relieved if his name is not on the team sheet, which
does not happen very often.
We
won't wax lyrical about how good he is because the volume of fans who
voted for him need no reminding, nor does anyone else. His influence on
the midfield, indeed the whole team, is obvious to see and it's no
wonder the gaffer sees him as an integral part of his plans. Hopefully
Stevie will be available to pick up his award on May 24th, but as we
possibly have a crucial match the next day he might not make it...but we
will make sure he gets it on your behalf. See you at the Bazcelona game
or in the Howard.
