August 2011

In the season that Lambert scored the first goal in Southampton’s 4-1 win over Carlisle United at Wembley, the Liverpudlian also bagged on 35 other occasions, while scooping the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year award.

No surprises then, that he has earned a place in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy’s team of five finals, having tormented the Cumbrians on a glorious day out at Wembley for the Saints on March 28 2010.

Rickie Lambert

Think of pure talent to feature in any Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final, and Rickie Lambert will be near the tip of the tongue.

Not many people will remember his outing for Bristol Rovers in the 2007 final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.

This inclusion has more to do with his heroics in 2010, in a performance that oozed class from start to finish.

Lambert’s mere presence was enough to induce an error from Carlisle’s Peter Murphy, which he soon made the most of from the spot with a penalty that he never looked like missing.

Undoubtedly the Saints’ danger-man that season and the star player in our ‘Team of Five Finals.’

Rickie is now looking forward to life in the Championship, whose teams have already been warned.

Lambert first made a name for himself at Bristol Rovers, after being purchased from Rochdale for £200,000 in 2006/07.

He established himself as one of League One's best players in 2008/09 by finishing as the season's joint-top scorer of 29 goals with Swindon Town's Simon Cox – a performance which also resulted in his first inclusion in the PFA League One Team of the Year.

Throughout the season, in which Rovers finished a respectable 11th in the league, Lambert put in a number of impressive performances, including scoring all four goals in a 4–2 win against Southend United and scoring a hat-trick in a 3–0 away win against Hereford United.

On August 10 2009, with a total of 155 appearances and 59 goals for Bristol Rovers, Rickie completed a move worth in excess of £1 million to Southampton.

The striker scored on his debut for the Saints against Northampton Town on 11 August 2009 and went on to become the club's top scorer for the season with 33 in all competitions.

He finished his debut season with Southampton with a total of 36 goals in all competitions, in addition to the goal he scored for Bristol Rovers in the opening match of the season. With 31 League goals, Lambert was the top scorer in all 4 divisions of the Football League for the second season in succession.

Coincidentally enough, he scored his 50th goal for Southampton in a 1-0 victory over Carlisle United on 12 February 2011 and finished the 2010-2011 season as the club's top scorer with 21 goals, as they finished 2nd in the league.

To follow the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on twitter click on here and on facebook click here .

Johnstone’s. Bringing colour to the beautiful game.