Beast walks it in cup win

Last updated : 04 September 2012 By Tony Scholes

It was an uninspiring performance, as reflected by the low player ratings, and it would have been a difficult task to pick out our best player until, as always seems to be the case on these occasions, Brian Jensen stepped up to the task.

Not as though he'd done anything wrong in the game. He'd been beaten just once, and from a late penalty, and there could be no criticism of his performance. It was simply a case of him not having too much to do.

Then, just as was the case in previous years against Chesterfield, Wolves, Grimsby and, of course, Chelsea, he stepped up to the mark and made three saves from Plymouth's five spot kicks. Without that, we could well have gone out of the competition.

So, it is absolutely no surprise that the Beast is rightly a convincing winner in both the man of the match vote and the player ratings.

He polled 49.8% of the vote, the biggest return we've had this season, and winning all but half of the vote ensures first place. Midfielder Marvin Bartley was second with a 22.2% share and no other player came close to reaching double figures.

The next two places went to midfielder Steven Hewitt, making his first start in the first team, and goalscorer Charlie Austin. They won 6.6% and 4.5% of the vote respectively.

Again, Jensen was a clear winner in the player ratings. His rating was 7.81 out of 10 and that was way ahead of Bartley, again second, who had a rating of 6.96. Austin, here, was third. His rating was 6.74 and central defender Ben Mee came fourth with a rating of 6.22 out of 10. Hewitt was the only other player to get above the average score of six.

The result gives Jensen 10 points towards the Clarets Mad Player of the Year. Bartley wins six points, Austin three, Hewitt two with one point for Mee.

Jensen, in his first game of the season, is sixth in the table. None of the top five featured in this game.

The voting is still in progress for Saturday's Brighton game. You can make your man of the match choice on the front page of the site or via the VOTING POLLS page and PLAYER RATINGS can be left on the message board.

Below is the result for the Plymouth game with the current player of the year table.

MAN OF THE MATCH

49.8% - Brian Jensen (121 votes)
22.2% - Marvin Bartley (54 votes)
6.6% - Steven Hewitt (16 votes)
4.5% - Charlie Austin (11 votes)
4.1% - Ben Mee & Brian Stock (10 votes)
2.9% - Michael Duff (7 votes)
1.6% - Luke O'Neill (4 votes)
1.2% - Keith Treacy (3 votes)
0.8% - Danny Lafferty, Alex MacDonald & Ross Wallace (2 votes)
0.4% - Junior Stanislas & Sam Vokes (1 vote)

PLAYER RATINGS

7.81 - Brian Jensen
6.96 - Marvin Bartley
6.74 - Charlie Austin
6.22 - Ben Mee
6.07 - Steven Hewitt
5.89 - Michael Duff
5.70 - Luke O'Neill
5.15 - Brian Stock
5.04 - Sam Vokes
4.96 - Danny Lafferty
4.44 - Keith Treacy
4.30 - Alex MacDonald
4.26 - Junior Stanislas
4.04 - Ross Wallace

CLARETS MAD PLAYER OF THE YEAR

19: Dean Marney
15: Joseph Mills
14: Lee Grant
13: Kieran Trippier
11: Chris McCann
10: Brian Jensen
8: Charlie Austin & Jason Shackell
6: Marvin Bartley
2: Steven Hewitt & Martin Paterson
1: Michael Duff & Ben Mee