Terrier on the Terraces: Smithies gets my vote

Sean Scannell struggled to play a consistent 90 minutes under Mark Robins, with most of his appearances coming off the bench.

This season, he was given a new lease of life initially under Mark Lillis, and, when a move to Millwall was blocked on transfer deadline day, he has gone on to have an exhilarating season.

Whilst his end product has not always been present, he has been a constant menace to defences with his pace and strength. He was voted into FourFourTwo’s top 50 players in the Football League this season, having impressed opposition fans.

Inside him, Jacob Butterfield has impressed. When he’s not been on his game, the team have struggled.

He has shown himself to be far more than just a makeweight in the deal which took Adam Clayton to Middlesbrough, with many fans thinking Town got the better side of the deal. Butterfield has chipped in with goals and assists, making undoubtedly the pass of the season in setting up Sean Scannell’s goal at Nottingham Forest.

Jack Robinson has been the most consistent defender for Town this season before his season was cut short by injury.

After years of average left-backs, he was a revelation. Reece James has come in and done well, but Robinson is, in my view, a better defender from what has been seen thus far.

My player of the year, despite these excellent candidates, is goalkeeper Alex Smithies. With Smithies, people see his errors and make more out of them, forgetting that he’s playing behind a porous defence and that his mistakes happen perhaps twice a season at most.

His performances have been superb. People who can’t see his qualities tend to have an agenda against him, for reasons known only to themselves.

Without Smithies, Town could very well have been looking at disaster; with him, mid-table security has been assured for this season.