Shane Long has been voted the Saints player of the month for January, but the voting was very tight in a month that started with doom and gloom and ended with optimism.

Saints played five games in January and after the first two morale amongst Saints supporters was as low as it had been since the early summer of 2014, but then suddenly the season kicked itself back into life and that revival was sparked not by the higher profile players in the team but by the usually unsung heroes.

Shane Long won by a narrow margin polling 37.1% of the vote pipping Steven Davis into second place with 33.1% with Matt Targett in third place with 14.5% with no other player close.

All three deserved this acknowledgment from the supporters of the part they played in January, in truth there was little to choose between Long and Davis, perhaps what tipped the balance for the Southern Irishman over his Northern counterpart though was the fact that Steven Davis was unable to play in the win over Manchester United, if he had of done he may just have snatched it.

That does not mean that Shane did not fully deserve the award though, it is just a reflection of how hard both have worked.

Neither have, up until recently at least, been truly appreciated, they are hard workers and that is always a problem for some fans to truly appreciate, supporters often look at the big names of a team or those with flying pace ahead of the likes of Long and Davis.

Both were outstanding in the games they played in January and I think Long does deserve to shade it ahead of Davis but only marginally.

It was good though to see Matt Targett feature so strongly n the vote, he has excelled in a slightly different role than the one he played at the start of the season when Ryan Bertrand was injured, back then there were those who gave him abuse without really taking into account his inexperience and the fact that he was playing in a patched up defence, and that perhaps makes it all sweeter and shows that sometimes you have to give a player a chance to shine and that if you write him off on a handful of games then it is very shortsighted.

So who did you vote for ? Do you think Shane Long is a deserved winner ? give your comments below.

Photo: Action Images

TimSaint added 18:23 - Feb 2 Shane unanimously won both the official SFC December award and TUI award for his excellent performances (in Pelle's absence) and goals. To win it in January as well just goes to show how well he has done with a decent run in the side and to be fair, he was up against a few more nominees in January than he was in December. Well Done Shane - please keep up the good performances and give us another brace against the Gunners tonight !!

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