April A Golden Month For Goodliffe, Burton And Cooke

Let’s meet the final Players of the Month for this season - and when supporters need their big names to stand up, they’ve not let them down.

Southend United couldn’t have timed their climb better and it’s not just the forwards who have fired them up the table.

This time last year, Ben Goodliffe was licking his wounds after Sutton United were relegated. Now he wants promotion back to the EFL.

He played every minute of every game for the Shrimpers as they finally managed to crack the top seven.

Crucial to their push since joining from Colchester United, he’s been solid at the back and chipping in at the other end as well.

That included an incredible acrobatic effort against Sutton, and he added another against Wealdstone as well.

It was a dramatic end to the National League North season - so there were a lot of candidates to pick from.

Buxton were one of the clubs to shine, and they bagged a play-off place following a great month against some of the teams around them and Kieran Burton was outstanding.

The left-back has been instrumental – proven by his two selections in Vanarama’s Team of the Week. He showed he’s also a dab hand in the other half of the pitch, scoring twice to help the Derbyshire side secure a top seven finish.

The month started with a huge point against Kidderminster before a win against fellow play-off chasers Chorley had them dreaming. Their final day win against Warrington – in which Burton got the winner – saw them make things safe.

If the North was breathless, what about the National League South?

Torquay United were involved in the title race, even down to the final few seconds of the season.

It seemed to be going to plan for leaders Truro City - and then Cody Cooke gave the champions-in-waiting something to think about!

Cooke did all he could on the final day, scoring a hat-trick against Hemel, but it ultimately wasn’t to be.

He scored four goals in five games through the month and chipped in with one assist as well – ending the season with an impressive return of 20 league goals which way outperforms his xG of 17.1.

It wasn’t to be promotion in the end, but his form in front of goal will make Torquay one of the fancied sides again next year.