The race for the Unique Pub Co/ Evening Press player of the year award is almost up with season-long front runner Chris Fairclough within touching distance of the crown.

Despite the consistent efforts of Barry Jones and young Christian Fox, Fairclough's average mark remains well above seven and with just four games to go his lead looks untouchable.

New faces Peter Swan, Mark Bower and Alan Fettis will be left contemplating what might have been.

The three new acquisitions have all scored consistently high average marks but will fall some-way short of the required number of games played to qualify for the competition.

Marks out of ten are awarded by the Evening Press for each League and cup match.

Players have to have appeared for at least 20 minutes in a match to qualify for a mark and at the end of the campaign will have to have figured in at least two-thirds of City's total number of games.

At the end of the season, City's top performer will win £350 and the runner-up £150, the cash provided by the Unique Pub Co.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.