Russell Martin gets my vote for Norwich City’s player of the season.

Two days to go until we find out who the Barry Butler player of the year for this most memorable of seasons, and my vote has gone to our outstanding right back Russell Martin.
I’m sure most City fans will agree that while Andrew Crofts was excellent in the first half of the season and Simeon Jackson has shone towards the end, it’s really a three-horse race for this year’s award.
That would be between Martin, skipper Grant Holt and midfield talisman Wes Hoolahan. So why does Martin edge the award?
Well, he’s played every minute of every league match this season, itself a remarkable achievement for an outfield player. He’s also scored five goals, all of them crucial – a goal against Doncaster in September in what turned out to be a rare away defeat which dragged City back into the game, a great goal at Reading in a key 3-3 draw, the winner of QPR on New Year’s Day and a last minute goal against Cardiff a fortnight later which gave City another vital point against a big promotion rival.
Finally there was his fifth goal which gave City a 4-1 lead at Portman Road last month.
I personally thought the goal at Reading was so good that I couldn’t resist buying the shirt he wore when he scored that goal when the Canaries auctioned them on eBay.
Don’t get me wrong, Hoolahan has been superb, always wanting the ball, doing things we’ve never seen before in a City shirt, and Holt has lead the line superbly, just as Mark Hughes did a generation ago. Opposition defenders hate playing against him, opposition fans just simply hate him, but we don’t care.
Holt and Hoolahan have already appeared in the PFA Team of the Season for the Championship so they’ve already been recognised, which is why I think it’s fitting it goes to an unsung hero.
While Martin’s impressive feat of playing in every game and notching five goals stands for itself, it’s just the tip of the iceburg.
Remember how we struggled at right back before him. Dare I mention Jon Otsemobor who was, in comparison, quite frankly useless. Dear old ‘Semmy’ used to run to the half way line at cracking pace and then stop, cut inside almost at a right angle and invariable seek out a two yard pass to Mark Fotheringham.
Martin has pace to burn and he’s been involved in some key moments, particularly in the big games – his Carrow Road goals gave City four points against QPR and Cardiff, he was full of running in the last ten minutes against Derby – remember it was his cross/shot that ended up bouncing off Simeon Jackson and into the City net and it was him who kept Craig Bellamy in his pocket when the former City man returned to City back in January.
Apart from that he seems like the nicest guy in football. I sit in the Jarrold Stand, a dozen or so metres up in the stands from where he runs up and down every two weeks. He always salutes the crowd, waves to his brother in the centre of the stand and nobody seems to have a bad word to say about him.
More importantly in a week when we’ve been promoted to the Premier League, most City fans will no doubt agree that whatever we need next season in terms of playing staff, the need for a first team right back is simply not on Paul Lambert’s shopping list.