We are continuing to make our way down the ’72 of the 72’ with the end of the regular season in both League One and League Two now complete.
It's certainly been no easy task, but - just to clarify - our '72' is less a roll call of the best footballers in the EFL and more a tribute to those players who have enjoyed the most memorable seasons while racking up the most impressive stats.
Whatever the criteria, we're confident in our selections of the most outstanding players through the Championship, League One, and League Two and welcome any debate on the subject!
One of the key stars and standout players in the third-tier this year has been something of a surprise package with the next man on our list being Stevenage and now Northern Ireland international striker Jamie Reid.
As mentioned in our introduction of the 29-year-old attacker, Reid’s season can be summed up by his recent international debut for Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland side back in the March international break.
Having played twice for Northern Ireland’s U21 side all the way back in 2013, the former Mansfield Town man was called up to the first-team and scored in the opening ten minutes of a 1-1 friendly draw against Romania at the National Arena in Bucharest.
Last season, with Stevenage punching above their weight under the management of Steve Evans, Reid was crucial in helping ‘Boro gain League Two promotion with ten goals in 45 games but he has taken that up a notch this time around.
The prolific front-man notched 18 times for Stevenage in League One this season, although they eventually missed out on a top six finish and a play-off spot due to an underwhelming end to the campaign that was compounded by the sudden departure of the aforementioned Evans to his former club Rotherham United.
Defenders could definitely have benefited from showing the top scorers in League One to their left side during the season, as Alfie May (83%), Colby Bishop (81%), Devante Cole (67%) and Reid (83%) scored the vast majority of their L1 goals with their right foot - Reid scoring a dozen goals from open-play and six from dead-balls (including two penalties).
Reid (literally - see above!) did so much right this season and constantly gave himself opportunities to get on the scoresheet. In fact, only Charlton Athletic’s Alfie May managed more shots in League One, Reid balancing admirable persistence with quality and precision: his 55 shots on target more than any other player in the division.
His importance to Stevenage cannot be emphasised or better illustrated than by this key statistic: Reid provided five match-winning goals to Boro's cause this season – no player in the EFL netting more winners.
27: Morgan Whittaker 28: Conor Chaplin 29: George Thomason 30: Mickey Demetriou
31: Stephy Mavididi 32: Marc Leonard 33: Josh Sheehan
34: Matt Smith 35: Kwame Poku 36: Illan Meslier 37: Aden Flint
38: Ronnie Edwards 39: Josh Sargent 40: Alex Gilbey 41: Ben Sheaf
42: Jobe Bellingham 43: Devante Cole 44: Jacob Greaves 45: Paddy Lane
46: Herbie Kane 47: Dan James 48: Archie Collins 49: Karamoko Dembele
50: Haji Wright 51: Dan Crowley 52: Cameron Brannagan 53: Aaron Collins
54: Andy Cook 55: Connor Shaughnessy 56: Jannik Vestergaard
57: Willy Gnonto 58: Ellis Simms 59: Charlie Hughes 60: Fatawu Isshaku
61: Sam Hoskins 62: Paul Mullin 63: Chris Martin 64: Omari Hutchinson
65: Isaac Hutchinson 66: Sam Tickle 67: Ben Hinchcliffe 68: Michał Helik
69: Lewis Wing 70: Rob Apter 71: Kyle Walker-Peters 72: Alex Palmer
