MATCH ratings for players. Just writing those words sends a shiver down my spine. Being required to translate a player's match performance into merit marks. Take my word for it, that simple-sounding task has been the major curse of my career as a scribbler.

Well it's a subjective thing, isn't it? Purely in the eye of the beholder. Take 10 fans who have been to the same match, sit them down in a room and ask them to mark the players they have just watched, and I'll guarantee you'll get 10 different sets of answers.

Years ago, before the dreaded marking system inflicted itself on this country's newspapers, it was so much easier being a sporting hack. I devised my own system of match reporting, which was heavily influenced by my own disastrous career as a professional footballer.

If any player had performed like I did - i.e. awful - I simply didn't mention him in my report. If I had nothing good to say, I said nowt. Didn't half save me a lot of aggravation.

And then, almost simultaneously, every newspaper in the land decided that their football reporters had to award marks to the players.

Now there was no hiding place for faint-hearted scribblers like myself.

Believe me, marks equate to trouble between reporter and footballer - or at least it did for me.

When I became this newspaper's Manchester City correspondent the best part of 20 years ago, the marking system became a constant source of friction between myself and the lads wearing the sky blue shirt.

In those days there was an unwritten rule about marking a player's performance. Obviously the top mark which could be awarded was the maximum 10. The lowest mark was a four.

Turned into words, that figure amounted to "absolute stinker."

I still vividly recall being collared by an irate Steve McMahon one morning in the early 1990s at City's old training headquarters on Platt Lane in Fallowfield.

Ugly

McMahon was not a pleasant sight when he was angry, and that morning he was boiling fit to burst.

Red-faced and with an ugly glint in his eye, he jabbed me in the chest with his finger and demanded to know why I had awarded him only four marks for his performance against Middlesbrough the previous Saturday.

"Steven," I replied. "I gave you four marks for your performance against Middlesbrough because I am not allowed to give you any less."

Tired of the insults and threats to my physical well-being, I hit on a new strategy for City's next match against Spurs at White Hart Lane.

On the team bus heading South, I told each player that he could mark himself for this particular match. On the way home I collected those marks from every player who had been on duty.

Every player bar one took the exercise seriously. The exception was goalkeeper Tony Coton, who gave gave himself 11.

Interestingly, McMahon, who I thought had acquitted himself well against Spurs, gave himself a mark of five.

Why this trip down Memory Lane? Because I was fascinated to read the marks for the season given to the players of our Greater Manchester football clubs, which were compiled by our specialist reporters and published in the Evening News last week.

Promising

Now you the readers of M.E.N. Sport can help us to identify this season's star player of our region, and the most promising young player.

The reader who agrees with the choice of our panel, and is first drawn out of the hat, will win for themselves a year's supply of Boddingtons beer, courtesy of our sponsors.

I can't have a vote, but I can at least have a say. And I'll confine my views to our four local clubs in the Premiership last season.

Our Manchester United expert Stuart Mathieson named Wayne Rooney as his star performer. Who could possibly argue with that?

Me, for one. Yes, the Rooney Monster is a football genius. But my vote goes to Ryan Giggs. Just like vintage claret is Ryan. He gets better with age.

The choice of our Manchester City reporter Chris Bailey was also for a player no longer in the first flush of youth - Andrew Cole.

Again difficult to contradict. Cole has played some of the best football of his career since joining God's Own Club.

But my top man of the season at Eastlands? Richard Dunne, the man I would want alongside me in the trenches when the bullets start flying.

Over at the Reebok, our Bolton correspondent Stuart Brennan nominated the adventurous and exciting full-back Ricardo Gardner. Does my opinion tally? You will find out later.

Neil Barker, the Wigan Athletic fanatic of the Evening News sports desk, was quite emphatic with his choice, Leighton Baines, who many believe is destined for senior international honours.

My vote would have gone to Rocket Man Jimmy Bullard, Mr Perpetual Motion. Fulham's gain is Wigan's loss.

So who would I name as the Greater Manchester region's star player of the last nine months? I would go for a player who never lets his team down, never gives less than 100 per cent, never shirks a physical challenge and never gives opponents a moment's respite.

Step forward and take a bow Kevin Davies of Bolton Wanderers. Even without the glut of goals, he is still everything I believe a centre-forward should be.

You don't agree? That's OK. I did say right at the start that judging a player is in the eye of the beholder.

So let's have your nomination - the entry details are given left.Who knows? You could still be drinking free Boddingtons beer this time next year!

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