Alan Mannus and Michael Gault have each had fine seasons and, difficult though it was to overlook them, I have to say that Peter Thompson gets the nod from me. It had been tight between all three of them going into last weekend's Irish Cup final with Coleraine, but Peter's double blast turned the tie on its head to ensure the trophy would be staying in the Windsor Park cabinet as part of a third successive double

If you look back over his career, Peter's goals to games ratio must be pretty astounding.

He has found the net on a regular basis ever since breaking into the Linfield team a few seasons back and last weekend's brace against the Bannsiders took this year's tally to a pretty decent 44.

It has always been easy for strikers to grab the headlines because, after all, they are the ones whose goals win games more often than not, although the contribution of the goalkeeper, defence and midfield can sometimes go without reward from the papers.

Peter deserves the headlines, though, just as much as he deserves to be crowned Player of the Year tomorrow.