THE Evening Press/ Collier Plant Hire Player of the Year competition for York City Knights has imitated the club's promotion bid in going down to the wire.

Scott Rhodes and Lee Jackson went into last week's Grand Final neck and neck at the top of the standings on 32 points each, meaning that last game of the season was vital.

Neither of the players were deemed by the Press to be among the best three players on the day - that trio were man of the match Danny Brough (three player-of-the-year points), Jim Elston (2pts) and Simon Friend (1pt) - and so the entire competition was all set to depend on man-of-the-match votes sent in by readers, for which a weekly bonus point is awarded.

Five players received votes this week (namely Rhodes, Jackson, Austin Buchanan, Mark Cain and Simon Friend) and, amazingly, Rhodes shared top spot with Austin Buchanan until just a few hours before Thursday's deadline, when an equalising vote came in for Jackson.

That meant that Rhodes, Buchanan and Jackson were all awarded a bonus point this week.

And that in turn meant the entire player of the year competition rested on count-back - the number of Evening Press man-of-the-match accolades awarded throughout the season.

And it was the skipper, Jackson, who came out on top, with four compared to Rhodes' three.

Jackson therefore picks up the trophy, plus £300 cash from sponsors Collier Plant Hire, while Rhodes collected the second prize of £150.

Player of the year final standings: Lee Jackson 33pts, Scott Rhodes 33, Danny Brough 28, Damian Ball 21, Simon Friend 20, Chris Langley 20, Jim Elston 16, Darren Callaghan 13, Yusuf Sozi 12, Mark Cain 9, John Smith 8, Austin Buchanan 8, Richard Wilson 8, Nathan Graham 7, Craig Forsyth 6, Alex Godfrey 5, Mark Stewart 5, Chris Smith 2, Dan Briggs 2, Craig Farrell 2, Mick Ramsden 2, Aaron Wood 2, Scott Walker 2, Albert Talipeau 1, Rich Hayes 1, Tom Andrews 1.

Updated: 11:51 Tuesday, October 19, 2004