With three games to go The Boothen Roar's player of the season has been decided and the winner is.....left winger Matthew Etherington.
The pacey wideman has had a successful season, scoring 6 goals in 35 games, and has racked up eight The Boothen Roar Man of the Match awards for the Potters this season.
After a quiet start to the season Etherington burst into life in the away trip to Goodison Park, when he inspired the team to a 1-1 draw. He ended up runner up behind Salif Diao in that poll and two 3rd places followed before his first poll win, when he was voted Man of the Match in the home game versus Wolves, and also grabbing one of the goals of the season.
A second poll win followed in the next game away at Hull, as he netted another impressive goal, and he was now bang in form. A trio of games followed where Etherington failed to grab a place on the poll podium before he started a fantastic run of sixteen top three finishes in seventeen polls, with a knee injury picked up early on against Manchester City seeing him missthe next five games in the middle of that run.
January was a particuarly productive run of games as Etherington won the polls for games against Fulham and Arsenal, with a runners up result against York.
Etherington finally took top spot in the Player of the Season table with the aforementioned Man of the Match award against Arsenal and followed that up with two more as he won the polls for games against Sunderland and Blackburn, opening up a gap between him and the chasing pack.
A runner up spot against Wigan followed before injury struck at Eastlands. Even with a lengthy lay off knocking his match fitness he hit the ground running on his return to the side and was runner up to Rory Delap in his comeback game, away at Burnley, before landing top spot in the home draw with Aston Villa and another second spot in the home game with Tottenham.
The left wingers eighth, and currently final, Man of the Match award arrived in the next home game when he topped the poll in the win over Hull.
With three games left he stands three Man of the Match awards ahead of nearest challengers Thomas Sorensen and Ricardo Fuller but with nine runners up awards, compared to one and five for the aforementioned duo, he cannot be overhauled.
Etherington will now be presented with his 'The Boothen Roar' Player of the Year trophy in the next few days.