Pope in top form at Watford
Nick Pope, in the first half in particular, was in terrific form for Burnley at Watford. He made two outstanding saves to deny Roberto Pereyra during that first half, one save down low to his right and the other tipping over a fierce shot.
His performance won him both the man of the match vote and the player ratings and given him an outstanding chance of becoming the Up the Clarets Player of the Year.
He polled 47% of the man of the match vote, ahead of midfielder Ashley Westwood who came in second with a 25% share. Jack Cork, captain on the day, won 9% to take third place with Kevin Long in fourth place with 8% of the vote.
Those four players also took the top four places in the player ratings, and in the same order. Pope won it with a rating of 8.32 out of 10. Behind him were Westwood, scoring 7.88, Cork and Long, the latter two having ratings of 7.44 and 7.36 out of 10 respectively.
Pope wins the maximum ten points towards the player of the year with six points to Westwood, four to Cork and two to Long.
Those points have made it very interesting at the top. Steven Defour still leads with 93 points with Ben Mee just one point behind. With both currently out injured, it is those players right behind who could come through to win the award.
That’s, in effect, three players with James Tarkowski on 85, eight points behind Defour, Pope on 81 and Jόhann Berg Guðmundsson currently on 78 points.
The next vote will be underway on Saturday after the Leicester game. The Watford result and the updated player of the year table are below.
MAN OF THE MATCH
47% – Nick Pope
25% – Ashley Westwood
9% – Jack Cork
8% – Kevin Long
3% – Sam Vokes
2% – Georges-Kévin NKoudou
2% – James Tarkowski
1% – Matt Lowton
1% – Ashley Barnes
1% – Aaron Lennon
1% – Chris Wood
0% – Stephen Ward
PLAYER RATINGS
8.32 – Nick Pope
7.88 – Ashley Westwood
7.44 – Jack Cork
7.36 – Kevin Long
7.16 – Matt Lowton
7.12 – Stephen Ward
7.00 – Sam Vokes
6.92 – James Tarkowski
6.36 – Ashley Barnes
6.16 – Chris Wood
6.12 – Aaron Lennon
5.00 – Georges-Kévin NKoudou
UP THE CLARETS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
93: Steven Defour
92: Ben Mee
85: James Tarkowski
81: Nick Pope
78: Jόhann Berg Guðmundsson
69: Jack Cork
60: Ashley Barnes
36: Charlie Taylor
34: Robbie Brady
32: Ashley Westwood
27: Phil Bardsley
17: Chris Wood
16: Stephen Ward
14: Kevin Long
12: Matt Lowton & Sam Vokes
11: Aaron Lennon
8: Scott Arfield
5: Tom Heaton
3: Georges-Kévin NKoudou
2: Jeff Hendrick
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