Howard completes the midfield

Last updated : 13 June 2008 By Tony Scholes
Howard has had his best season yet at Oakwell despite the side again battling against relegation. The FA Cup run to the semi-finals raised his profile as did the goals he got. Howard netted no fewer than thirteen times in the league during the season although over half of those were from the penalty spot.

Having started his career with Southampton he has twice moved in free transfers. The Saints released him in 2003 prompting a move to Swindon and when they elected to let him go two years later it was Barnsley who snapped him up. Now the Yorkshire club have put a £10 million price tag on his head which will surely mean he starts next season where he ended the last one.

With Jonathan Greening having claimed the first central midfield spot in the Clarets Mad team for 2007/08 the remaining candidates went up for the vote again and Brian Howard won it with 24.7% of the vote just ahead of Wolves' Seyi George Olofinjana who polled 21.0% of the vote.

Third place went to probably the most impressive midfield player in the games against Burnley last season, Crystal Palace's Ben Watson. He had two outstanding games against us and that took him to third place with 14.7% of the vote.

Now it is the turn of the strikers, and the choice of sixteen was easy. The panel went for those who had scored the most goals. As with the central midfield there will be two votes to select the two for the team and the first vote is now underway in the usual place on the front page.

With those two places to fill, the team so far reads: Adriano Basso (Bristol City), Bradley Orr (Bristol City), Ryan Shawcross (Stoke), Danny Shittu (Watford), Paul Robinson (West Brom), Liam Lawrence (Stoke), Brian Howard (Barnsley), Jonathan Greening (West Brom) and Joe Ledley (Cardiff).