A Long wait for a first man of the match award
Kevin Long joined Burnley from Cork City as a teenager in January 2010 and last Saturday in the 0-0 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion he finally won his first man of the match award.
He’s still played considerably more games out on loan at various clubs than he has for Burnley but, in his 39th league appearance, he was the stand out player as we inched virtually to the target we need for European qualification.
He’s been standing in for Ben Mee recently and, generally, has played really well. He got his first Premier League goal in the 2-1 home win against Leicester and his performance five days ago was worthy of winning both the vote and the player ratings.
He won 36% of the man of the match vote, ahead of captain on the day Jack Cork who was second with 26%. Jόhann Berg Guðmundsson took third place with 21% and a 7% share won fourth place for midfielder Ashley Westwood.
In the player ratings, it was the same top three. Long was the winner with a rating of 7.28 out of 10, followed by Cork who scored 7.05. A rating of 6.53 gave Guðmundsson third place whilst fourth place went to Matt Lowton.
That result has given Long the maximum ten points towards the Up the Clarets Player of the Year with six points for Cork, four for Guðmundsson and one each for Lowton and Westwood.
It means Guðmundsson, with 26 points, is our April player of the month and he’s also edging ever closer to winning the player of the year. He now has 104 points. Should he return from injury for both of the last two games, last year’s winner Ben Mee could pass him with Nick Pope and James Tarkowski now the only other players who can overhaul his current total.
The Arsenal vote will be underway on Sunday as soon as possible after the game and below you can see the Brighton result, the April Player of the Month result and the current Player of the Year table.
MAN OF THE MATCH
36% – Kevin Long
26% – Jack Cork
21% – Jόhann Berg Guðmundsson
7% – Ashley Westwood
4% – Matt Lowton
2% – Ashley Barnes
1% – James Tarkowski
1% – Nick Pope & Stephen Ward
1% – Aaron Lennon
0% – Sam Vokes & Chris Wood
PLAYER RATINGS
7.28 – Kevin Long
7.05 – Jack Cork
6.53 – Jόhann Berg Guðmundsson
6.45 – Matt Lowton
6.23 – Nick Pope
6.15 – Ashley Westwood
5.78 – Ashley Barnes
5.70 – Stephen Ward
5.40 – Sam Vokes
5.25 – James Tarkowski
4.70 – Chris Wood
4.55 – Aaron Lennon
UP THE CLARETS APRIL PLAYER OF THE MONTH
26: Jόhann Berg Guðmundsson
20: Nick Pope
18: Jack Cork
17: Kevin Long & Ashley Westwood
11: Matt Lowton
2: Ashley Barnes
UP THE CLARETS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
104: Jόhann Berg Guðmundsson
93: Steven Defour
92: Ben Mee
91: Nick Pope
85: James Tarkowski
83: Jack Cork
62: Ashley Barnes
43: Ashley Westwood
36: Charlie Taylor
34: Robbie Brady
29: Kevin Long
27: Phil Bardsley
23: Matt Lowton
17: Chris Wood
16: Stephen Ward
12: Sam Vokes
11: Aaron Lennon
8: Scott Arfield
5: Tom Heaton
3: Georges-Kévin NKoudou
2: Jeff Hendrick
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