The season started pretty quietly for Ainsworth and with no goals in August or September I don’t think anyone would have predicted he would finish the season with nine goals to his name.

The early part of the season saw Ainsworth taken off early in a number of games as his all action style often saw him run out of gas with twenty minutes of the game left to play. He had been in and out of the side before the home game against Crystal Palace at the start of October. He got Rangers back into the game after Palace had gone 2-0 up and overall he was one of very few players that acquitted himself well. He got my Man of the Match award for that one.

He found himself out of the starting XI for the nest few games but was unlucky not to have doubled his seasons tally when he had one chalked off against Norwich after a late appearance as a sub. He was back in for the game at Pride Park though and put Rangers ahead on the half hour with a scrappy effort. Once again he played well as Rangers ran out 2-1 winners.

Ainsworth’s next real impact on a game came when Rangers found themselves trailing by two goals at home to Hull City. He grabbed two goals in eleven second half minutes to grab a share of the spoils. In the next game away at Stoke he laid on the first goal for Furlong to set us on our way to our annual win at the Britannia.

Ainsworth now had the taste for setting up goal and his crosses led to strikes from Moore and Furlong in the 2-2 draw with Ipswich Town. If there is a criticism of Ainsworth it’s that his crossing isn’t great and he doesn’t make as many goals as a wide player should.

Against Coventry he picked up the Man of the Match award on a poor night for the R’s that saw Royce dismissed and Coventry steal the points with a late pen. In the first game of 2006 an Ainsworth header on the stroke of halftime was enough to grab a point in a home draw against Burnley.

The next match was the FA Cup tie at his hometown club Blackburn. Much to everyone’s surprise Olly dumped him on the bench in what would probably have been his game of the season. Rangers were terrible until he came on ten minutes into the second half and gave us some hope. He was Man of the Match on the day.

He was back in the side for the home game against Southampton and won the penalty that Langley converted to grab a vital home win. In January’s final game Ainsworth scored the opening goal against Leicester in what would prove to be Ian Holloway’s penultimate game in charge. We ultimately lost. Again.

Ainsworth won your QPRnet.com Player of the Month award for his efforts in January and he started February well by creating the only goal of the game for Marc Nygaard in the home victory against Millwall. He missed the back half of February and was quiet in the first half of March before he grabbed his seventh of the season at home against Brighton. It should have been enough for a win but Bignot intervened with a comedy o.g. to put the kybosh on that.

The home game against Stoke was probably Ainsworth lowest moment of the season as his terrible penalty was easily saved by the Stoke keeper and they ended up running out 2-1 winners. That would have made it 2-0 and who knows what might have happened from there?

On April Fools Day Rangers surrendered at home to bottom of the league Crewe. Ainsworth scored a belter with the last kick of the game but it was nothing more than a consolation. His next goal came against Norwich when he gave Rangers the lead on the stroke of halftime. Cookie made it two before we hit the self destruct button and managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. That was Ainsworth’s ninth of the season.

In the final game of the season at Reading a powerful header from Ainsworth led to Ray Jones setting up Furlong for our equaliser before the stitch up of all stitch ups took place to carry Reading to the points record.

In the end Ainsworth polled over 60% of your votes and won the vote by a mile. In truth I don’t think there were many outstanding performers this season, or any in fact, and I this award is based more on effort that anything else. He is as whole hearted as they come and his award of the captaincy for the final few games bears this out. If a few more had cared as much as him or put in as much effort then we may not have finished in a terrible 21^st. Let’s hope that next season his enthusiasm can be matched.

Well done Gaz.