As my Dad so cheerfully announces as soon as the longest day is gone, it’ll soon be Christmas.

Whilst he’s been saying it since the sun started setting at 9.30 pm, it is true now. We’re into October, which means a month of football has passed since we crowned Anthony Scully our Player of the Month for September. As we wander into the Papa John’s game this evening, it is time to crown last month’s top performer.

As you know, we’ll award the top three players from your ratings and discuss the best (and worst_ performances of the month as well. It’s all based on your opinions, not purely mine, a collective opinion if you like.

Without further ado, it’s time to collate your ratings so far this year and award our second Stacey West Player of the Month for the 2021/22 season. To recap, these are the rules.

• To qualify, a player must have played in at least 50% of the games that month.
• Players who play fewer than 15 minutes will not have their rating counted
• If two players are tied, the player with more appearances will be placed highest

I think that’s it; if anything else comes to me, I’ll work it in later!

Let’s get a shufty on, shall we?

3rd – Lewis Fiorini – 7.22

The on-loan Manchester City man certainly came of age in September, with three goals in five outings. He started with a stunner away at Cambridge before getting our leveller against Rotherham. He also bagged what turned out to be a decisive goal away at Burton Albion, and his three from midfield is an impressive haul – let’s not forget players such as James Jones didn’t manage that many in the league all season. His best outing, according to you, came away at Burton, but remember he only came as a sub at Cambridge. Before that, he was very much outside the starting XI, but he’s played his way into it with ease.

2nd – Regan Poole – 7.26

I love this, because it is one for the silent majority. I’ve seen Poole get a lot of criticism from some quarters, people who you’d think had somehow been personally affected by the 23-year-old playing right-back for us. It seems that those not inclined to shout loudest on social media are actually with me in thinking Poole is a solid right-back who had a very good September. In fact, he’s our top-performing outfield player, have returned good numbers at Cambridge (8.3) and Burton (8.8). Neither earned him a Man of the Match, but it was enough to put our newest captain onto the podium for this month.

1st – Josh Griffiths – 7.90

After a somewhat shaky start, our on-loan keeper has proven exactly why he really is an England number one, at least for the Under 21s. He’s been sensational this month, earning us points against Rotherham and Burton with his outstanding contributions. He picked up three Man of the Match awards in succession and was the only player to score above a seven in the 1-0 defeat against Ipswich.

He’s heading off on international duty this week, but he can go there knowing that you, the Lincoln City fans, have scored him highest over our five games in September. He is certainly proving to be every bit as adept as the player he replaced fellow West Brom man Alex Palmer. It must seriously pain Palmer sitting on the bench at West Brom, third in line, whilst Josh looks better with every passing minute in his second senior spell.

Previous Winners

August: Anthony Scully 7.54

Next Page: Best and worst team performances, and the best individual performance (the best since these records began)