As the season came to a close, Walsall had hopes of making the playoffs, but those dreams were quickly crushed when they fell short.

Even though they ultimately placed eleventh and were only five points outside of the top seven, Mat Sadler’s rookie season showed promise.

Throughout the season, we evaluated 34 players, and 11 of them met our criterion by participating in more than half of the games in which they were evaluated. The top 10 performers’ results are shown here.

Hutchinson had the season of his dreams, recording a career-high 15 goals and 12 assists across all competitions. He was named Walsall’s player of the year.

His first career hat-trick in a 4-1 home victory over Gillingham in October, a brace in a 6-1 rout of Grimsby Town on New Year’s Day, and the game-winning long-range strike against Colchester United that was chosen as the team’s goal of the season were among his remarkable totals.

In an effort to win over new manager Sadler, Allen juggled multiple positions during the first half of the season, which saw him largely on the sidelines.

He netted his first goal for Walsall in December during a 3-1 victory over Wrexham, coming off the bench. Later in the campaign, he scored twice more.