THIS season has been nothing if not eventful for Worcester City.

A solid start to the campaign saw them keeping pace with the play-off places and looking as though success could be on the cards.

Then a staggering run of nine consecutive defeats, during which they endured an injury crisis in defence, saw them slide dramatically down the Blue Square Bet North table and left nervously looking over their shoulders.

But, despite now sitting 14th, they have found some form in the last few weeks and head into today’s historic match against Chester at St George’s Lane (3pm) ready for one final flourish.

Over the course of the campaign, I have marked the players out of 10 for every match they have started, with the exception of the Worcestershire FA Senior Cup. Manager Carl Heeley has used a total of 28 players since last August but one player, Tom Thorley, is comfortably ahead of the rest.

Going into today’s clash against the champions, Thorley, my pick for player of the season, averaged 7.35 over 46 games. Second on the list is centre-half Jacob Rowe, with an average of 7.19 from 31 games, followed by keeper Matt Sargeant with 7.18 from 16 starts.

Although hampered by a knee injury on occasions, Rowe has been a consistent performer, while Sargeant’s displays have been underlined by a string of fine saves.

At the other end of the scale, left-sided player Danny Edwards, who is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines with cruciate ligament damage, averaged 5.8 but started the fewest games.

Striker Ethan Moore and left winger Keiron Morris are not on the list as they have started less than 10 matches.

Full list of averages (starts in brackets, not including Worcs Senior Cup): Thorley 7.35 (46), Rowe 7.19 (31), Sargeant 7.18 (16), Weir 7.025 (40), Thompson 7.00 (30), Stuart Whitehead 6.97 (33), Ellis Deeney 6.86 (35), Rob Elvins 6.83 (41), Danny Glover 6.79 (29), Shabir Khan 6.72 (11), Michael Taylor 6.72 (11), Mike Symons 6.69 (36), Lee Ayres 6.625 (16), Matt Breeze 6.54 (24), Charlie Reece 6.54 (24), Matt Birley 6.33 (12), Edwards 5.8 (10).