For Aaron Collins, the recognition of being nominated for the EFL League One Player of the Season prize brings a sense of satisfaction and validation, but his goals for this campaign remain unfulfilled.
The Bristol Rovers star has been nominated alongside ex-Gas striker Jonson Clarke-Harris and Sheffield Wednesday talisman Barry Bannan for the prize. While his two rivals for the award are vying for promotion, Collins has been the standout star of a mid-table team with 15 goals and 12 assists in the third tier, making him one of the most dynamic and productive players in the country.
Being in esteemed company for a meaningful award is a fillip for the Welshman, although the sense of unfinished business is apparent when he sits down for this interview at The Quarters. He knows he has had an excellent season, but he also knows it could have been much better with his goal and assist returns tailing off since the turn of the year.
"It’s a nice achievement," he said. "Coming into this season, I hadn’t played in League One before and I had a point to prove to managers and everyone I’d played with that I could play in League One and higher.
"I signed a new contract at the start of the season off the back of a promotion and full of confidence, and individually, I have done very well and it has been noticed and I have been put in the top three players in the league.
"I wish I could have pushed us as a team further to get us into a position where we could have maybe challenged for the play-offs going into the end of the season, but we have had a good first season in League One.
"We would like to think we’re safe now. We’re not looking down and we can’t really look up, but the focus, for now, is the next seven games and going into next season.
"The two lads I’ve been put in the top three with, Barry Bannan and Clarke-Harris, he’s gone and scored 24 goals and however many he got in the Champ last season. And Barry Bannan has always been a Champ player.
"It’s nice to be noticed in that category and hopefully I can carry this on and go and get more goals before the end of the season and carry it on into next season."
Had the award been decided on New Year's Day, Collins would have been a heavy favourite to take it home. Three goals and two assists in 15 games since is by no means a terrible return, but he knows he is capable of more.
The former Forest Green Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers forward was certainly been affected by a downturn in form of the entire team in January and February, and Rovers' opponents have certainly wised up to his traits and threats, too.
Collins is philosophical about the situation. He says he has not been hard on himself and he is relishing the final seven games of the season. Despite time running out, his sights remain on netting 20 goals for the season and he is looking forward to a hectic end to the campaign with seven games in the next 23 days.
"I don’t think as a player you can ever be satisfied with what you have done," he said. "I haven’t been frustrated or let it wind me up that much because it’s football at the end of the day and you have your ups and downs, that’s what it is.
"The results have been up and down, we’ve been losing a few and winning a few. We haven’t got that sustainability that we maybe had before Christmas.
"I haven’t had as many goals and assists as I would have liked to carry it on, but the stats I had before this year have carried me into this year and I go into every game thinking I need to get more goals and assists.
"There is always stuff to improve on, but I think I have been creating chances and you go through times in a season where players take every chance you provide. At the time, it felt like that was happening before Christmas.
"You might create one or two chances or six or seven for one to be taken. That’s just football at the end of the day, you hit form and with me, I can score in four or five games in a row and then not score in 10.
"I am frustrated that I have not gone and excelled on those stats going from January, but I’ve still got seven games to go and my aim is the 20-goal mark. Especially with it being Saturday, Tuesday now when the games flow.
"At the end of last season, the games were flowing and I was scoring and we were winning. It always feels better when you’re going Saturday, Tuesday and you’re winning, and even when you lose you don’t really have time to reflect on it.
"It’s about being positive and you go into the next game with an open mind so the aim is to go into the games on Saturday and Tuesday and get that goal tally racking up."
Collins is a popular figure throughout the squad, but his bond with fellow Newport native Luca Hoole is stronger than most. The pair share lifts to training every day, and although Collins is only 25, his experience and wisdom doubtless were a welcome support for the defender earlier in the season when he was caught in a slump.
Hoole was taken out of the firing line by Barton in November before gradually being built back up again to the point where now he is among Rovers' most in-form players, and Collins is delighted for his mate.
"All of us, fans, players and staff, know how good of a player he is," Collins said. "He’s 20 years old and played 30-odd games and got promoted. That is a massive achievement.
"In League One, he has held his own. He has been in and out of the team and nobody likes that, but when he has been in the team he has done what he has needed to do.
"It is a joy to watch because we travel in every day together and we talk a lot. It’s the confidence as a young lad and the more confidence you get, the better you play.
"I’ve been through it myself. I went out on loan left, right and centre and I was in and out of teams wherever I had been. As a 19 or 20-year-old lad being dropped, sometimes you don’t know how to deal with it. ‘Do I speak to the manager?’ You don’t know who to speak to.
"I’ve given him guidance and advice and he’s taken that in certain ways. He might not have taken it all in, but the experience is going to grow him as a player and mature him going through his career."
March brought personal disappointment for Collins as he missed out on a first call-up to represent Wales, but that snub has only intensified his desire to force his way into contention for his country, and he knows the end of this season could play a pivotal part in realising his dream.
"It was frustrating not to make the squad after feeling like I had such a good season, but there were so many other good players that they can pick from as well," he concluded.
"They picked from other players and it is what it is, but I can only push myself even more now to go and put myself in the bracket for the June squad.
"The next seven games could be massive for me if I go on a little run going into the summer and they can think 'He's had a good full season and we’ll give him a chance in the summer’.
"That’s my aim, to get my name on that list and hopefully make a squad for the summer or the future."
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