Jay Spearing (Leicester City) – Spearing once again played the full ninety minutes in Leicester City’s final regular season match at the Walkers Stadium. With their playoff place secure, City relaxed a bit in their final league game on Sunday, and Conrad Logan in the Foxes goal had to be at his best to deny Middlesbrough. The goalkeeper even saved a penalty during the match and helped the team to a clean sheet. At the other end, Spearing was instrumental in stringing passes together in midfield and the side came out 2-0 winners with goals from Yann Kermorgant and Richie Wellens. Both scorers were their first for the club and Wellens, who was playing alongside Spearing in central midfield, took an expert penalty to seal victory for the home side.
Mikel San Jose (Athletic Bilbao) – Bilbao’s European hopes were dented by a 3-1 home defeat to Champions League chasing Mallorca at the weekend. Castro had put the island side in the lead just before half time but Bilbao’s top goalscorer Fernando Llorente equalised just a minute later to see the game go in level at the break. San Jose will be disappointed with the defensive display though as two goals in as many minutes from Nunes and Aduriz, just five minutes into the second half, sealed a 3-1 victory for Mallorca at the San Mames. Bilbao now lie 8th on 50 points.
Krisztian Nemeth (AEK Athens) – The Hungarian striker came on as a 66th minute substitute during AEK’s first Greek Superleague playoff match against PAOK at the OAKA stadium last Wednesday. In an uneventful match, AEK started off with Scocco and Blanco up front but neither had a real clear cut opportunity to score, until two minutes into the second half when a powerful long distance strike from Scocco could only be parried by PAOK goalkeeper Chalkias, which fell to the feet of Blanco who could not make the most of the opportunity. Nemeth came on for Blanco mid way through the second half but in a game without many goalscoring opportunities, the Hungarian didn’t have a real chance to score. The match ended 0-0.
Stephen Darby (Swindon Town) – The young right back started and finished a thrilling encounter between Swindon and Brentford at the County Ground. In a 3-2 victory for the Robins, the match swayed back and forth as the home side looked to keep their hopes of automatic promotion alive. Prolific striker Billy Paynter put Swindon ahead early on in the match but the away side were allowed back into it on 33 minutes when David Hunt was allowed to finish from the edge of the area at the second time of asking after poor defending had seen his initial attempt failed to be cleared. Danny Ward and Paynter again put the Robins into a 3-1 lead but they were pegged back once again when Ben Strevens took advantage from a stumble in the Swindon defence. Swindon now lie 4th on 82 points, 1 point behind Leeds in the automatic promotion position.
Robbie Threlfall (Bradford City) – The Liverpool loanee played his part in a rare clean sheet as Bradford beat Northampton Town 2-0 at Valley Parade. City manager Peter Taylor has recently signed a 12 month extension to his contract and the team celebrated with a good victory at home on the penultimate day of the season. In a slow first half, Bradford’s only shot on target was the opening goal as Gareth Evans swivelled on the ball from 30 yards out and fired a fantastic half-volley into the top corner of the net. Evans finished off the match in the second half 9 minutes time with another excellent finish, taking his tally up to 11 for the season.
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