“I can only think of one game where he made any errors” – Birmingham City fan pundit picks his player of the season

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Matija Sarkic was Birmingham City’s most consistent performer throughout the 2021/22 campaign up until his injury and deserves to pick up the player of the season award, according to FLW’s Birmingham City fan pundit Tom Oxland.

The 24-year-old linked up with the Blues on a training basis from Wolverhampton Wanderers around the same time Neil Etheridge was hospitalised with Covid-19, before officially joining in the latter stages of July.

With Etheridge taking a while to recover from the virus after being discharged from hospital, not being rushed back into action by the Championship side’s coaches, this gave the loanee the opportunity to get a run of league games under his belt and he certainly impressed.

Already making 23 second-tier appearances by the time the new year came around, he had established himself as one of the first names on the teamsheet with competitor Etheridge failing to force his way past him in the pecking order.

However, a dislocated shoulder in January ended the shot-stopper’s season prematurely, a real shame for the Blues who had seen him flourish between the sticks during his time in the second tier.

Despite missing a sizeable chunk of the campaign with this injury, FLW’s Birmingham City fan pundit Oxland believes he is a strong candidate for the club’s player of the season award.

Speaking to Football League World, he said: “In what has been a very poor season for Blues, it’s hard to really pick out a consistent performer that you could say thoroughly deserves player of the season.