Why Ryan is worthy winner in the ‘Great Escape’

RYAN Edwards is a worthy winner of the club’s player of the year award and my choice, too, when I rounded up the contenders a couple of weeks ago.

It has been an extraordinary season of two halves, the second having been so impressive that some of the players who only played in that half of it, like Hayden Carter and Sean Clare, could stake a legitimate claim for a vote from the supporters.

Few will begrudge Carter taking second place after the huge impact he has made, quietly and without fuss, to what we are now routinely calling the Great Escape.

But it is also fitting that one of the players who kept giving his all right through the worst of times has won the award.

John Brayford and Lucas Akins, among one or two others, also did that but no-one’s form was as undimmed as that of Edwards.

A pre-season knee injury stalled him and he made only a late appearance from the bench in the opening League One game, after missing the Carabao Cup tie against Accrington Stanley which started the season.

He was back in the starting line-up for the next Carabao Cup tie, against Aston Villa, though, and rarely absent after that.

We always talk about the fact that the Australian runs further than anyone else during the course of a game but it would be pointless if he did not do it to some effect.

Much of what he does tends to go unnoticed. It is the closing down of opponents more quickly than anyone else.

It is getting back to snuff out danger quicker and it is charging out to turn defence into attack.

Two examples stand out. When Burton beat Charlton Athletic 4-2 in November, the second goal happened because Edwards closed down goalkeeper Ben Amos so fast that he was startled into playing a hurried pass which only reached Joe Powell, who chipped the ball over the keeper to score.

And then there was that sensational goal in stoppage time away to Northampton Town, when Edwards ran 70 yards with the ball from just outside his own area to make it 2-0 and seal a vital win for the Brewers.

Possibly, no other player on the pitch could have raced the length of it so explosively in the 94th minute of the game. It was a brilliant moment. Edwards has played as an attacking midfielder off the striker, as a conventional central midfielder, wide on both sides and as one of two defensive midfielders at times during the season.

An admiring Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink says the fact that Edwards has a sharp footballing brain that he is able to adapt and understand each role so completely.

To cap it all, Edwards is a thoroughly nice guy, not that that is necessarily relevant to his footballing ability.

His contract is up this summer. Burton fans will be hoping he stays.

We always talk about the fact that the Australian runs further than anyone else during the course of a game but it would be pointless if he did not do it to some effect. Colston Crawford