PHIL Gilchrist looks set to be rewarded for a season of outstanding consistency by being named Oxford United's Player fo the Year on Sunday.

The central defender, who is still only 25, is leading by some way in the supporters' voting and, barring a sudden late surge of votes for someone else, will win the award for the first time.

His Canadian centre back partner Mark Watson and midfielder Martin Gray have also collected a significant number of votes.

Gary Whiting, secretary of Oxford United Social Club, said: "The returns are up on last year and the winner seems certain to come from Gilchrist, Watson and Gray, with Gilly looking the favourite."

The award will be presented before Sunday's match against Stockport at the Manor Ground.

It's not Gilchrist's fault that the U's have been unable to stick the ball in the net at the other end, and some of his performances - Chelsea and Bolton at home and Bradford away are just three that stick out - have been superb. The only game I can remember him being poor in was at Sunderland but this season the first division champions have made a lot of good players look second best.

He was excellent in both games against West Brom and don't be surprised if former United boss Denis Smith, who is known to be an admirer of Gilchrist's defensive skills, tries to add him to Malcolm Crosby, Phil Whitehead and Mark Angel at The Hawthorns.

Malcolm Shotton, though, will no doubt do all he can to keep a player who still has another year to run on his contract and, should United do go down, he will want to keep his strong back line if they are to have any chance of bouncing back at the first attempt.

After last Saturday's 0-0 draw at Valley Parade, Watson said: "We've got a good little partnership with the back four coming together. We're getting a good understanding."

Watson won his 52nd cap for Canada in the 1-1 draw with Northern Ireland in Belfast last week and reflected that it was very nearly another clean sheet.

"Northern Ireland scored in the 96th minute which was very disappointing," he said.

"But we had six Under 20 players out there so there were a lot of positives for us to take from the match."

Story date: Friday 07 May

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