Bone Idle: Pitman gets my vote for Pompey player of the season

We saw one former winner, Jed Wallace, on the telly on Friday playing for play-off hopefuls Millwall against Fulham, and another, Jason Pearce, back at Fratton with Charlton yesterday.

Some years it’s a job to work out who to vote for, or who’s going to win. But 2017-18 is not one of those years, in my opinion.

As much as players like Matt Clarke, Jamal Lowe, Ben Close, Kal Naismith and Luke McGee have shone, I’d argue none has come close to having made the contribution of Brett Pitman.

I suspect I was not alone, when he signed, in being a little unsure what to expect.

A proven goalscorer, yes, but was he past his best?

Would he have the appetite for a long League One campaign?

We didn’t take long to get the answer as he scored two great goals in the opening game at home to Rochdale and he has never looked back.

If you watch Pitman in action for 90 minutes, for much of the game he looks a million miles from being a match-winner. But give him the ball at his feet halfway into the attacking half and you can sit back and watch him create his own chance, which he will invariably take (as at home to Bristol Rovers or at Bradford on Tuesday).

Or put a cross somewhere near his head and, no matter how far from the goal he is, there’s a fair chance the ball will end in the net.

It’s been a long time since we had anyone scoring anything like the 22 goals he has, so I know who gets my vote this year.

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