My League Two Dream Team

1:41pm Friday 2nd May 2008

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Oscars? Pah! Baftas? Don't be daft. These are the golden gongs that matter. I present to you the Parker prize for League Two.

It is traditional at this time of year for lazy columnists, sorry I mean knowledgeable critics, to drum up a list of best players from the matches they have enjoyed/endured over these past nine months.

With nothing riding on City's trip to Wycombe this afternoon, I've idled away the spare hours that would have been spent preparing for a play-off pull-out by coming up with my best opposition 11.

This is purely personal opinion and entirely based on performances against City. I don't give two hoots if they resembled Ronald McDonald most other weeks of the season - if you played like Cristiano Ronaldo at Valley Parade, you're on the list.

So as the curtain comes down on the basement this afternoon, I give you those City opponents that have caught my attention covering bottom-division football for the first time.

Goalkeeper

It has to be Peterborough's Joe Lewis, pictured - how many other £450,000 stoppers are you going to find in League Two?

But Lewis was on loan at Morecambe from Norwich at the time (c'mon, keep up) when City found him in miserly mood in October.

Mark Bower managed one goal past him but the England under-21 international then excelled with a string of late blocks, including a point-blank one from Kyle Nix right at the death. Except it wasn't right at the death as Morecambe went straight up the other end and scored a winner of their own.

Andy Oakes (Darlington) and Frank Fielding (Wycombe) should also be mentioned in dispatches for their clean-sheet escapades at Valley Parade on afternoons when the Bantams did everything but score.

Full backs

One player stands, literally, head and shoulders above the competition. At 6ft 2in and 12 stone, Jude Stirling is not your average right back - add the ability to fire off a throw-in like a cannon ball and you can see why he is so popular with the MK Dons.

City were obviously so impressed with his throw-in technique last week that they all stood and watched to allow the Dons to steal in for a goal.

I won't nominate Dean Lewington for the left back on principle after his amateur dramatics over Joe Colbeck's red card. So it's Stockport's Matthew Rose, who overlapped for fun against City at Edgeley Park and then delivered the coup de grace with a superbly-placed free-kick.

Centre halves

Tackle of the season? No contest. It had to be Mark Arber's lunge to deny Alex Rhodes after Barry Conlon's penalty was saved against Dagenham. Arber, who had already scored for the Daggers, hurled his body in the way to prevent a tap-in from the rebound.

MK Dons tough guy Danny Swailes is my second centre back. You can see why Paul Ince was so keen to bring the no-nonsense defender with him when he quit Macclesfield.

Swailes scored and hit the post against City in October and was always in the thick of it at set-pieces.

Right midfield

Garry Thompson has been the name on everyone's lips around Valley Parade since his devastating display at Morecambe in October. Fingers crossed his signature may soon be on a City contract and they will be getting, according to former team-mate Scott Loach, a player who can do everything.

Centre midfield

The competition here was pretty fierce with several powerful candidates catching the Parker eye. Hereford's on-loan Toumani Diagouraga was a name to conjure with in more ways than one and McCall would love to have a natural leader in his side like Rochdale's long-serving skipper Gary Jones.

But there were two stand-out picks for me, David Perkins, pictured right, and Keith Andrews.

"Who's that little blond lad doing all the running about?" was the query when Rochdale won in West Yorkshire in February. By the time Perkins had run the show for a second time two months later at Spotland, every City player and fan knew all about him. Sadly he's got another year on his contract.

McCall rates MK Dons captain Andrews as the best midfielder in the league and who am I to argue? The Dons' system revolves around his onstant attacking bursts and he was instrumental in every threat they carried last weekend.

Left midfield

As the free-kick arced away from Donovan Ricketts, we didn't realise it was the start of things to come - the curse of last-minute goals was upon us. Defeat at Barnet was hard to swallow but it was a belter from Jason Puncheon, who looks far too good for Underhill - though that hardly sounds a glowing recommendation.

Strikers

Former AFC Wimbledon striker Roscoe D'Sane did such a grand job at Accrington that within six months he was on his way back to non-league with Torquay. But for a little man he made a huge impression on his first visit to Valley Parade in October. On a night that nobody wants to remember, he will never forget scoring twice.

For shock value alone, D'Sane just pips Bury's Andy Bishop as well as Rochdale super sub Adam Le Fondre - who would obviously be my first name on the bench given his exploits.

D'Sane may have proved a one-hit wonder but Stockport targetman Liam Dickinson has been in magnificent mood all season as the Hatters have stormed into the play-off race.

Dickinson did not score against the Bantams at Edgeley Park but his powerful hold-up play was crucial in Stockport's come-from-behind win.