Chris Wood – Leeds United (English Championship)

It sure was a shame the way the Leeds season limped to a close. Sitting pretty in the playoff spots only a month ago and then they go and bugger up with only three points from their last five games to miss the break by five. A bit stink, for sure, but this is also a young team primed for another run next time if they can keep a hold of their best players. Not only Woody but guys like Pontus Janson, Rob Green, Kyle Bartley, Ronaldo Vieira, Pablo Hernandez and a few others.

The Leeds season ended with a tame 1-1 draw against Wigan. The biggest story from the game, which was meaningless with Wigan already relegated, was Leeds’ fullback Charlie Taylor refusing to play over a transfer dispute but that’s just boring drama. What mattered was the final game of the campaign, in which Hernandez and Kemar Roofe both missed early shots for the lead and Wigan punished them through Ryan Tunnicliffe with a sixth minute goal.  

Which meant that Leeds spent the last 84 minutes of this term chasing a game against a weak-ass team but to be fair to them they never gave it up. Woody got dragged down by Michael Jacobs yet no penalty was given. Slightly controversial. Hernandez missed a header, as did Lewie Coyle. Gaetano Berardi smashed one over the top. But a few minutes after the break they got what they wanted as Eunan O’Kane was bumped over in the box and this time the ref pointed towards the spot. Up stepped Chris Wood.

That’s goal #30 for the season, a massive milestone. His 27th in the Championship which is four more than anyone else ended up with. He won the Golden Boot with ease in the end. Roofe would hit the crossbar and miss a close header and Leeds would have to settle for a shrugging point but whatever. The real focus is on Christopher and his many goals. You know how many blokes have hit thirty in a season for Leeds before? Because this guy does…

Incredibly, he scored 27 of the club’s 60 Championship goals – almost half of them! This is beyond a breakout season for Woody, this is one of the finest seasons a kiwi footy player has ever had. He scored 30 all up… the next most for the club came from Barkley, Doukara and Hernandez all with six. Clearly that’s an over-reliance but if they’re over-reliant on anyone, at least it’s Chris Wood. Ooh look, another milestone! They’re bloody everywhere for this guy.

YEP Player Ratings: “Chris Wood - Bagged his 30th goal, as he deserved to do, and this performance was a replica of so many others in the past nine months. Must be kept. 7/10”

A List of Achievements This Season:

• 48 games played with 30 goals scored
• Leeds Player of the Season
• Leeds Players’ Player of the Season
• Shortlisted for EFL Championship Player of the Season
• EFL Team of the Season selection
• Championship Team of the Season selection
• PFA Championship Team of the Year
• Yorkshire Evening Post Player of the Season
• Championship Player of the Month (January 2017)
• Championship Golden Boot Winner

Enjoy the full selection and savour a brilliant campaign:

Up Next: Next time you see Woody play’ll be for the All Whites…

Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)

Another match and another clean sheet for Winston Reid, but this one was comfortably the most impressive – not in the least because they actually won. Even more considering it was Tottenham Hotspur that they beat, putting an all but mathematical end to the title race. Something to savour for Hammers fans after a tough old slog of a season.

This is the best result of their season, challenged only by beating a weakened Chelsea in the League Cup, and suddenly signs are good at West Ham. Rumours of Slaven Bilic needing another result to save his job were blown outta the water with, you know, another result… and things look much better. They even climbed as high as ninth with the victory, weren’t they worried about relegation a month ago?

Yeah but then Winston Reid came back and the central defensive trio of Reid/Fonte/Collins has now played three times, 270 minutes, and is yet to concede a goal. A streak which includes matches against the two leading scorers in the league as well. It’s been tough to find a duo from that three that’s worked considering the utter lack of pace between the lot of them but as a trio they don’t need to be so fast, they need to be organised and aware and that’s something all three thrive on. It also frees up the wingbacks, easing that selection nightmare, and allows the midfield to apply more pressure in the centre of the park. It’s been great and Winston’s return from injury has been the unlocking of it all, lovely form ahead of the Confederations Cup too.

Clearly the signs were positive with a lil match programme feature on the lad beforehand too. Reidy chatting about shutting down Harry Kane and company as well as the prospects of Confeds footy with New Zealand in a few months.

Winston Reid: “When we played them at White Hart Lane [and lost 3-2 to two late Kane goals in November], he didn’t have a shot on target for 89 minutes, then out of nowhere he had scored a penalty and another goal from open play and they had won the game,” Reid recalled, remembering a difficult afternoon in north London that ended with the No2 being sent-off late in added-time.

“That’s the type of player he is and that’s a positive for Spurs, because he doesn’t need a lot of chances to score his goals. He generally very rarely misses the target, so with players like that, you need to try to keep them with their back to goal for as much time as possible to make it difficult for them to score.”

So very generous. Anyway, West Ham knew what they were in for and they defender stoutly against a few first half threats. Recently recalled keeper Adrian made a big impact too, making two impressive saves, one off Kane and the other from Eric Dier’s header. The foot to turn Kane’s effort over the bar (after Adrian had spilled the first attempt from distance) was outstanding. Big block from Fonte in there too.

However the Hammers were having their fair share of attacks too, particularly from counters against what was a surprisingly sluggish Spurs side. Maybe it was the intimidating atmosphere at London Stadium, finally living up to its Olympic billing. Maybe it was the rare Friday night kickoff. Anyway, Lanzini had a couple chances on the break, using plenty of speed but shooting wide one one occasion and then getting clattered by Hugo Lloris on the second but Lloris got to the ball first, no foul.

Meanwhile Winston Reid, who wasn’t captain with Mark Noble returning to the XI, copped a foul from Kyle Walker which saw the England defender booked and then picked up his own yellow after colliding with Victor Wanyama. He was trying to carry the ball up out of defence but overran it and then smashed into Wanyama trying to win it back and both dudes needed treatment. Might have tried to sell it a little, to be fair.

Mostly though the Hammers kept Spurs to shooting hopefully from distance and thoroughly annoyed them with a superb defensive performance. It was 0-0 at the break and Mauricio Pochettino went to his bench to try fix things but not before West Ham had snuck a goal of their own. Plenty of luck about it, with a couple of deflections and failed clearances taking place before the ball ended up at Lanzini’s feet but Ayew and Calleri had already had opportunities after the break and WHU were good value for it. They put in a real shift to keep it at 1-0 for the last 25 minutes as well. Really fantastic result and a huge effort from Winston.

ESPN FC Player Ratings: “DF Winston Reid, 8 -- Unluckily booked in the first half, but Reid stuck to the task and was hugely influential in another clean sheet.”

Here’s one for ya from the Telegraph: “It was feisty, a Friday feist-night summed up in one first-half statistic: West Ham attempted no fewer than 16 tackles and succeeded in just one of them with cautions for Cheikhou Kouyaté, Winston Reid and Mark Noble who could even have seen red for a very late lunge at Eric Dier.”

Hey, get on Winnie’s chances at the Hammer of the Year award. He’s won it once before so another would be huge… although gotta say that he’s probably the second favourite after Manuel Lanzini’s work this season.

That list has pretty much everyone on it but this video Ol’ Winston also makes the longlist for Goal of the Season for his injury time winner against Sunderland. Again though, unlikely he tops that solo effort from Dimitri Payet or Andy Carroll’s bicycle kick.

You want one more thing to read? Here’s a good one about Winston Reid’s role in helping Welly Nix and NZ U20 lad Sarpreet Singh along his career. Chur, bro.

Up Next: Home to Liverpool at 1.15am on Monday (NZT)

Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)

Also coming to an end was the season of Tommy Smith, which lasted long enough for him to get back to playing fitness but concluded with a couple games outside the match squad. Instead Mick McCarthy chucked out  away to Nottingham Forest… who smoked them 3-0 to dodged relegation by a matter of two goal difference points. Narrow margins. Blackburn won 3-1 on the same day but it wasn’t enough to get ahead of Notts, who had Britt Assombalonga score twice, one from the penalty spot (and he missed another spottie too – coulda had a hatty!) along with a goal to Chris Cohen (from a deflection, granted) and that was it for Ipswich in 2016-17. Smithy’s own league term ends with just ten appearances, four of them off the bench for 506 total mins of footy.

Three straight defeats to close the season and it’s Ipswich’s worst campaign by placing on the ladder since 1959. Hence fans aren’t too cheerful about the future direction of the club and if you’re looking for a punt, perhaps take odds on McCarthy not being the manager in 12 months’ time. Of course, all the doom-mongers are forgetting The Prodigy Within.

East Anglian Daily Times: “Several young Ipswich Town players will be extending their time at Portman Road after the Blues offered them new deals. Goalkeeper Michael Crowe, along with Monty Patterson, Shane McLoughlin, Chris Smith, James Blanchfield and George Fowler have all had year options on their current contracts taken up by the club.

Patterson, a New Zealand international striker who scored on his debut for the All Whites against the USA last October, has spent much of the season on loan at Braintree. He scored two goals in 13 appearances for the Iron, who were relegated from the National League last weekend.”

Well in, Monty. Well in son.

Up Next: Confederations Cup, matey

Marco Rojas – Melbourne Victory (Australian A-League)

Ah, poor lil Marco. Football giveth and football doth taketh away. A year ago he scored the winning penalty in the OFC Nations Cup final shootout that booked the All Whites their place at the Confederations Cup and about 11 months later he misses the decisive one in the A-League grand final to allow Milos Ninkovic to slot for the championship. Can’t say that Sydney FC didn’t deserve it, they were far and away the best team all season, but Rojas’ Melbourne Victory will be devastated to get as close as they did. They were leading ‘til midway through the second half too.

Rojas wasn’t the only kiwi in the final. Jai Ingham also made an appearance off the bench in extra time but couldn’t manage to influence the game (other than getting booked), while Rojas was practically a spectator with cramp in the last moments. Not a great penalty from him and the keeper went the right way. Guts bro. He had a fine season though, coming up sixth in the Player of the Year ranks even.

Up Next: The same as everyone else

Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)

Five games without a win dragged the PECers back into trouble but a 2-1 win over Heracles in their second to last game saved their bacon for another season in the Eredivisie. There’s a lot that’s bound to change with John van’t Schip taking over the managerial duties and Thommo no sure fix to still be there either (the oft-mentioned Confeds Cup coming at a pleasant time for shop window duties) but the important thing here is they’ve officially dodged relegation.

Feyenoord and Ajax are going down to the last day for the title, with Ajax 4-0 up after their first leg of the Europa semis, it’s good fun at the top there. Zwolle meanwhile… at least they won this last game, because PSV weren’t gonna be easy in the finale.

Thomas played 90 minutes in central midfield and there was a lot of work to do after Ouasim Bouy was sent off 18 minutes into things. Top scorer Queensy Menig had been left on the bench but he was into things after only 28 minutes as Danish striker Nicolai Brock-Madsen came off injured. A minute later Danny Holla’s lovely free kick hit the net and Zwolle had themselves in front. Then Menig, the on-loan Ajax forward, made it 2-0 straight after the break. Reza Ghoochannejhad pulled one back in the fourth minute of injury time but that was way too late. A decent send off for manager Ron Jans in his last home game, in the end. Thomas with three tackles and a couple interceptions and clearances each. They had 23% of possession so… lots of defending. Only 39 touches as a central midfielder.

Up Next: Away to PSV Eindhoven, 12.30am Monday (NZT)

Jeremy Brockie & Michael Boxall – SuperSport United (South African Premier Soccer League)

That’s a nice place to start. Brockie was rested as SSU drew 0-0 at home against Bloemfontein Celtic. Mike Boxall played the full thing with a clean sheet and Brox was on for the last 31 mins to chase a winner but it didn’t happen. United shoulda won with the chances they had but whatever, let’s move on to the second game of the week.

Away to Polokwane, this was a thriller of a footy match. Morgan Gould put SSU up in the very first minute with a rising header but by the half they’d been pegged back by Tshepo Tema. It was in the 58th minute that Jeremy Brockie performed the above miracle. Brilliant shot, just fantastic. You know who else took a liking to that goal…

The lead only lasted another five before Visimusi Mngomezulu slipped an equaliser in from a tight angle after being played in behind the defence. But Thuso Phala got on the end of Reneilwe Letsholonyane’s pass with a dozen or so left on the clock and the champ did the business. The game was up and down and back up again and in the end SSU took a 3-2 victory, keeping their hopes of a top four finish very practical. Brox almost had another one too.

Hmm, a bit of Premier League fandom rivalry within the ranks though…

Up Next: SSU vs Cape Town, 5.30am Weds (NZT)

You ain’t gotta do it thirty times like Woody but if you fancy these things we scribble up here on Le Cache, then slap on one of them ads and help the team out.