After starting off on a mazy dribble through the best performers in the EFL, we're now inside the top 25 of players as we get ever closer to this year's Playmaker 72 number one.
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!
Next up we have the League One 2023/24 Golden Boot winner, Charlton Athletic's Alfie May...
It hasn't been the best season for Charlton Athletic this season with the Addicks finishing 16th in League One after having won just 11 league games all season – that's fewer than relegated Cheltenham Town.
It's a good job that Charlton signed Alfie May from Cheltenham last summer then. The 30-year-old capped his best season yet by winning the League One Golden Boot, being named in the League One team of the season, as well as picking up plenty of his own club's Player of the Season awards!
“It’s been a great season for me personally," May said about his much-deserved Golden Boot win.
"Winning the Golden Boot is something I’ve dreamt of doing and over the last couple of seasons I’ve been in and around it and been close.
"Coming from non-league to now being the top scorer in League One is something that will live with me forever and it’s a great achievement for me and my family.”
In total, May scored 23 goals and registered one assist in 43 games for the Addicks this season – that's a third successive 20+ goal season for the striker.
While at Cheltenham, May scored 23 in the 2021/22 League One season and 20 last season which is perhaps why he has been the only player to feature in all three Playmaker 72 lists so far. We're fully expecting him to be there next season too.
🤩#cafc | @alfiemay pic.twitter.com/BIV0d7QYnR
— Charlton Athletic FC (@CAFCofficial) April 28, 2024
In total, May's 23 goals this season made up 36% of Chalton's total goal tally in the third tier this year – without him, they could well have suffered the same fate as the Robins.
May has very much gone by the old adage of 'if you don't shoot, you don't score' – no other player in League One took as many shots (144) as the striker this season. That's 19 more efforts than the second-highest shooter, Ephron Mason-Clark.
Being such an outlet for Charlton this campaign really has been a great achievement for May. And to score so many goals for a struggling team is even more impressive, as even his manager Nathan Jones admitted.
"Alfie has showed that he can be a good goalscorer at this level," Jones said.
"To have the golden boot he must have done something right. To do it in a struggling side shows that he has."
Jones isn't wrong about what a good goalscorer May is at this level. Since moving up to League One with promoted Cheltenham for the 2021/22 season no one has scored more goals in the third tier.
That's 66 goals in 128 League One games over the last three seasons – imagine what he could do for a team challenging for promotion.
25: Will Evans 26: Jamie Reid 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
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NameAlfie Ben May Born/Age1993-07-02(30 -yrs-old) Nationality England PositionForward (Striker) | |
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