Hello, I have found 10-15 May (week 36) of 1981/82 Match Facts but as this was an extended season, there is another week following. The last First Division fixture was played on Friday 21 May 1982, the day before the FA Cup Final and especially crazy since England were preparing for their first World Cup since 1970!
I’m also gradually picking up the missing ‘Matchmen of the Year’ – the latest is 1982/83: Alan Devonshire.
Here is the updated table: I notice Dalglish was apparently "Match Weekly's 'Footballer of the Year'" but not because they are over-ruling the ratings I suppose, but because they decided to name one based on football in all competitions (including International games maybe) or something like that. I think they are announcing Devonshire as Matchman of the Year for the 1st Division even if they don't say it specifically (they say top player of the 1st Division which is basically confirming it and obviously his average is the highest anyway). The system might be a bit of a stretch in terms of having a lack of central midfielders, but as always I've gone with their own line-up where one is shown, and the cases for inclusion for all the players are clear based on the ratings it seems. I guess a team could be lined up as they showed with a 4-3-3 or with a 4-4-2 with the Stoke players probably as the wingers although I'm guessing Devonshire played most games at least as left winger/left midfielder in the season (Paul will know better), and Lee was I think mostly played as right midfielder for Liverpool (it's possible in some games he went in the centre and Johnston on the right maybe but I'm not aware of it).
I actually thought I'd worked out Dalglish's average for league games as 7.31 before of course. It's not really worth double checking though I suppose (especially without double checking others in the overall table including Devonshire). I do get the same number (an average of 8.5 - the highest for a Matchman of the Month as shown on the page Paul posted) for his November average (the games vs Everton, Coventry, Notts County and Tottenham).
@Paul W I really hope to find the ratings from the weeks after March 7, 1987 to end the entire 1986-87 season! I follow what is on ebay and if I can find the missing magazines I will buy them, if of course at a reasonable price, because I pay huge postage to Bulgaria I also hope for the last week of the 1992-93 season, I think it's the May 22, 1993 issue of Match Magazine
Strange! I have all the ratings of Man Utd from the 1982-83 season and Brian Robson has 33 games with a rating of 7.03, he is not in the top list!
My new acquisition has arrived soon and I will share it with you! Earlier in the topic @Paul W had shared more from this magazine for the season 89-90! SHOOT magazine almost the entire 1989-90 season
Nice work Pavlin! So between you and Paul you have nearly all of the 89/90 Shoot ratings now you mean I think? It's possible that Match calculated Robson's 1982/83 average slightly wrong then perhaps? Your calculation was based on just league games was it too (I think he got some high ones in the FA Cup didn't he)? And I see there is a caption that does confirm Devonshire as Matchman of the Year for 82/83 now too. It does seem like they refer to Dalglish as Match's Player of the Season though, rather than PFA/FWA Player of the Year. Maybe when I update the table again I'll make an additional note about it, perhaps putting his name in bold too (and maybe make a note about why Molby and McGrath are both in bold for the 91/92 Shoot ratings XI).
Yeah, I looked at Pavlin's post about Robson again just now and as he says 33 games it's clear it's just league games. The number is the same on Wikipedia too, for reference: Bryan Robson - Wikipedia It's easy to make a miscalculation (I mean Match staff, not Pavlin) I guess, when not using spreadsheets especially, like Paul said. I do it occasionally when I'm making posts on this forum myself! Maybe as the grades weren't being continually updated through the season (only at half-term points and the end of the season) it's a little bit more likely to happen for some players even too. Anyway, thanks to Pavlin it's understood that Robson would be around about the top 20 overall, and making the bottom of the congested midfielders list too for 82/83 then....(which doesn't change the overall summary table).
Hello, I have found the ‘Matchman of the Year’ for a couple more seasons, 1991/92 & 1992/93 – but a bit disappointingly, they only have a ‘top 10’ and not club-by-club ratings like they had in earlier years. They also include all the divisions in one issue instead of separately. Also, I had the chance to look through quite a few Match and Shoot! copies from the summers of 1989 and 1990, I couldn’t find any end-of-season ratings so maybe they ‘missed’ a couple of years there. I’ve got some ‘Match Facts’ too. Will keep looking and post these for now: 1991/92 is confirmed as Darren Peacock