Thursday 28th April, 2022 at 11:02am
Last week we launched the vote for the 2021/22 McCrea Financial Services Player of the Year vote with four worthy candidates nominated following a great first season back in the second tier of Scottish football.
As a newly-promoted side, the Jags have taken to life in the cinch Championship very well sitting in fourth position as we head into the final round of fixtures.
There’s been a bit of everything over the course campaign from a six-goal haul against Hamilton to a record run of clean sheets at the back end of 2021 and the list of nominees is reflective of that.
Goalkeeper Jamie Sneddon, defender Kevin Holt, winger Scott Tiffoney and striker Brian Graham were all in the running for the ballot with the winner chosen by the fans.
We can today reveal Jamie Sneddon is your 2021/22 McCrea Financial Services Player of the Year
Jamie is presented with his McCrea Financial Services Player of the Year award by McCrea Financial Services competition winner and lifelong Thistle fan, Kerr Bryson.
It’s hardly a surprise that Jamie has won this award considering he was a three time winner of the McCrea FS Player of the Month award during the season – more than any other player!
It wasn’t all plain sailing though for Jamie this term having lost his place in the team at the start of the season. Despite that, after getting a second chance and his first league clean sheet of the season against Morton he never looked back.
A clean sheet in a home draw with Dunfermline in October kick-started an incredible run which would break a century old club record.
A midweek shutout at Morton followed the stalemate with the Pars before Jamie became the hero against Inverness, saving a Sean Welsh penalty to earn the team a point in a goalless encounter.
The next week he had to step up again, making a crucial save in injury time as Thistle held out for a 1-0 against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
The three games thereafter weren’t as busy for the 24-year-old but clean sheets in each of them made him the only Thistle goalkeeper in history with six league clean sheets on the trot.
Then came the final game of the run and it was possibly Sneddon’s hardest earned shutout. It came against Queen of the South at Palmerston Park and with the first half coming to a close, Jamie was called into action on two occasions.
Firstly, a Lee Connolly shot from the edge of the box was flying towards the near post when Sneddon touched it onto the woodwork to keep the game scoreless – a fine stop but there was better to come.
A few minutes later Connolly was on the prowl again. The midfielder this time trying to pick out the other top corner with this one seemingly past Sneddon before he’d even seen it. Somehow still, the goalkeeper was able to get a hand to the ball to turn it onto the cross bar before he gathered the loose ball from Richard Foster’s header.
The former Cowdenbeath ‘stopper has continued to rack up the clean sheets beyond that run, currently sitting on 21 for the season with 40 games played – a remarkable 52.5% shutout rate.
Upon winning the award from McCrea Financial Services competition winner and lifelong Thistle fan, Kerr Bryson, Jamie said:
“It’s a real honour to have been voted as the Player of the Year by the fans. The three other guys who were nominated for it all had fantastic seasons and they all would have been worthy winners.
“For me, it’s been an immensely enjoyable season. First and foremost, I’ve played plenty of games which is always the goal and then on top of that I’ve been able to keep a whole load of clean sheets which is always great because it’s helped us pick up points and push towards the top end of the league.
“Also, I was very proud to break a few club records this season. When you think about how long the records have stood for and the goalkeepers that have been at this club, it’s pretty surreal to know that our run is now up there with them. A lot of the credit has to go to my teammates as well because everyone in the team, from front to back, plays their part defensively.”
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