Bradford 'shocked' after Hoskins beats Cook to League Two Player of the Season award

Bradford City midfielder Alex Gilliead has revealed how the Bantams dressing room was ‘shocked’ when Sam Hoskins pipped Andy Cook to the League Two Player of the Season award on Sunday.

The Bradford striker has 29 goals in all competitions this season and 26 in the league, but he was beaten to the top prize by Hoskins at the EFL Awards ceremony. The two men will come up against each other in Saturday’s promotion showdown at Sixfields.

“Everyone thought it was a given and he was nailed on to win,” Gilliead told the Bradford Telegraph and Argus. “It came as a big shock to us all.

“Throughout the past couple of weeks, we’ve all been saying to Andy that he’d be in the team of the season. But we also thought he’d be the player of the season as well.

“Everyone is gutted for him after having such a good season. But he’s a good professional so he’ll get his head down. We’ve still got three big games left and he’ll obviously be trying to get more goals and an even bigger tally than he’s already got.”

Cook and Hoskins lined up together in the League Two Team of the Season during Sunday’s awards, but on Saturday they’ll be on opposite sides.

“You’d think anyone with 29 goals in a season would be player of the year,” Gilliead added. “I think we’d got in his head a bit that he would win so he was obviously disappointed.

“We know how important it is for us to get back on track (against Northampton). Three points would be massive to get us back in the mix and set us up for another huge game next week at Crewe.

“We want to go down there and put in a performance that will get that momentum back to push for our own aims for this season. They are obviously wanting a win to get promotion, but we’ve got to make sure we’re fully on it because it’s just as big for us.”