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da esoccer bet: Normally at the end of the season at Preston there tends to be a number of candidates running for the team’s player of the year award, but as mentioned in the title of the article there are just two real stand out performers in my eyes, in what has been a thoroughly miserable season with very few positives.
The first being winger-cum emergency left back Paul Parry, who has completed 43 games in all competitions scoring 4 goals. Since his 2009 summer move from welsh club Cardiff he has largely found games hard to come by following numerous injury set backs which have restricted him to just 20 starts in two seasons before this year.
However, following Phil Brown’s failure to bring in a left back during pre-season, Parry was called upon to play the role in the first game of the season against Colchester United and has maintained the role throughout the season, even with the purchase of Steven Smith from Norwich City. Being one of the more senior members of the squad, Parry really has had to step up to the plate following two years of cameo appearances and he truly has obliged with some fantastic performances out of position which have earned him lots of praise from the management staff and the North End faithful.
Despite his excellent performances there has been no evidence of new contract talks with Parry, whose contract expires in the summer as despite him being on big wages he would surely be a sad loss to the North End side should he be allowed to leave on a free. In what has been a hard season for the club with just six wins since November, Parry’s performances have been one of the few positives and amongst North End fans he will be a definite contender for the player of the year award.
Although he only joined the club in November, big German ‘keeper Thorsten Stuckmann will definitely be locking horns with Parry for the award. On his debut against Rochdale in the Johnstone’s paint trophy, Stuckmann saved three out of the five penalties in the shoot out which set up a next round tie with eventual winners Chesterfield. The 6ft6”stopper has also kept 10 clean sheets in his 24 games for the club which has gone towards patching up the leaky defence seen under Phil Brown.
The only question which has to be asked is why Thorsten was not signed in the summer when he was on trial with the club as he could have made a definite contribution to keeping out the opposition for the first few months of the season also and which would also have given him the opportunity to build a key relationship with the back four. It took Stuckmann just a couple of games to earn himself an improved 18 month contract with the club after displaying a number of vital saves, which he has continued to make on a regular basis since joining the club.
In the long run his saves must have earned the team a number of points and have firmly made him a fans favourite at Deepdale. Some of these saves at times have kept North End in games and have been vital to survival this season. In appreciation to Stuckmann’s fantastic work over the past few months, the away trip to Oldham’s boundary park was dubbed ‘Thorsten Stuckmann Day’ where fans dressed up in the colours of Stuckmann’s home land Germany and wore masks with the keepers face on them. Despite not completing as many games as his rival Parry, his popularity with the fans will give him the edge over the Welshman and also the fact that he has been the biggest positive of the season so far for me with his top class performances in between the sticks.
Personally, I would choose Thorsten Stuckmann purely due to the huge impact on the team and the club as a whole and despite making just one appearance last season for Alemannia Aachen of the German second division, his performances have been of the most consistent standard. In my eleven years of watching North End, I have seen a number of good keepers ranging from David Lucas to Andy Lonergan but Stuckmann is by far the best in that time as he displays such confidence in all areas of his game.
However, Parry should not be left in the shadow as his excellent consistent performances over the whole season have gone a long way to securing our safety. Despite being asked to play out of position, he has helped guard Stuckmann’s goal with the rest of the back four and has been a real threat on the overlap going forward. It has got to be one of the two but Stuckmann just edges it for me.
By Preston North End Blogger Jacob Smalley
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