Dr Fishy's Player Of The Year - Week 2

By: Dr Fishy
Date: 12/05/2002

SO here we are. The official countdown begins. My good self has graded 20 players nine times or more over the course of the season, and this week I'll be giving you numbers 20 and 19.

As some of you may have worked out from my clue last week, number 20 is none other than WAYNE BURNETT, officially Dr Fishy's poorest player of the season. He has been graded 24 times over the course of the season and earns a fairly respectable grade C.

In total Burnett amassed 158 points from 24 games (not forgetting that each grade was given a value in points). His overall mark out of ten is 6.5 - the .5 helping him gain the C rather than C-.

At the start of the season Burnett was in and out of the team through injuries and inconsistent performances. Unfortunately, Dr Fishy was not at the game in which he scored against Crewe on the opening day of the season.

Burnett got a grade C 27% of the time. His best grade of the season was a B, possibly coming in the 3-1 win over Portsmouth after Lennie Lawrence had just been sacked and Groves had been installed just before the New Year.

Burnett's best run of the season (that is how many games he went consecutively without getting a D) extended over just six games, and they were his last six appearances of the campaign (all Cs, coincidentally).

His worst run (that is how many games he went consecutively without getting a B) extended over 12 matches, during those dark winter months were he and the team alike, didn't know what they were doing.

Wayne remains the only player to have been given an F grade. I doubt another one of those will be dealt out again, unless anyone can do worse than he did at Crewe back in January. At least I think that was the game in which he earned an F.

Burnett failed to get one A, but got two Bs, 16 Cs, four Ds, one E and one F. He'll admit, and so will I, that that's an impressive range of grades. But I think it's obvious that C was always going to be his overall grade.

In 19th place is another midfielder, one of Lennie's Bum Chumps (yes, you've probably guessed by now) it's Dutchman MENNO WILLEMS. Only Burnett deprived him of the wooden spoon.

In total Willems was also graded 24 times but he gets a total of 167 points. That average, worked out as a mark out of ten, equates to 6.9, which rounds up nicely to an average grade of C.

Willems received a C 38% of the time, with his best grade a B+ coming at Coventry in September. He did receive some very kind grades early in the season when he wasn't branded by the fans as utterly useless.

Menno's best run of the campaign stretched over 14 games and that would have been right from the beginning of the season before he got a D somewhere near the 4-0 defeat at Walsall and from then on he never really recovered.

His worst run was surprisingly just nine - that would have been ten until he was given a B- in his last appearance for the club (which I think came at Watford, but I'm sure he didn't get a B- in that game)!

His worst grade was D- probably coming in the performance at Walsall just before Christmas. At least he lost the sweatbands in the end. No need for them Menno, you never broke into a sweat anyway.

Like Burnett, Willems never got an A but he did get 5 Bs and 14 Cs, five Ds but no Es or Fs. In fact, forget the Fs as I've already mentioned that Burnett was the only one to receive the most embarrassing letter of the alphabet from Dr Fishy's point of view.

Despite sounding negative all the time, C wasn't such a bad achievement for the only foreigner in the team and it wasn't as if he lacked the effort or desire. I think it was obvious from the departure of Lawrence that he was unhappy but I hope, like the rest of the Town, that he gets a transfer soon, possibly back to Holland.

Next week we have our first surprise (as in "how the hell is he down there?" rather than "how come he's so high up?"). The other one isn't going to take a scientist to work out why he's in 18th position.

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