Oxford United's star player Luke Foster described the turn-around in his season as "amazing" after achieving the rare accolade of being chosen as everyone's player of the year.

The 6ft 2in centre back picked up both the Buildbase Players' Player of the Year and the Andrew Knapton Supporters' Player of the Year before kick-off in United's final home game against Rushden.

And that capped a remarkable transformation for the 22-year-old former Lincoln City player, signed by the U's from Stalybridge in February last year.

For not only could Foster not even get into United's team at the start of the season, he couldn't even get into their squad.

At the end of August, both he and Marvin Robinson were disciplined and sent home by manager Jim Smith after arriving 45 minutes late at the team's pre-match meal before the game at Stevenage.

And Foster was told to improve his lifestyle if he wanted to get back into the Oxford team.

But his has been the astonishing success story of the season at Oxford United. For when he did get his opportunity - not until October, and the team's 14th match - he grabbed it with both hands.

For his defensive ability, his positional awareness, his brilliantly-timed tackles, his accurate distribution and his phenonemal consistency, he has been a runaway winner.

"It's been a great season for me, personally," he said. "The season couldn't have got off to a worse start, so to turn it around and get player of the year and fans' player of the year as well is amazing.

"It was great . . . I got the awards before the game and I could go out and enjoy the game, knowing the fans, as well as the lads, had voted for me.

"I wasn't in the team at the start of the season but was determined to do everything I could when I got my chance, and that seems to have paid off.

"When they announced my name for both awards, I think it was one of the highlights of my career."

Foster, who began is a trainee at Sheffield Wednesday, plays the game in such a mature way that it's easy to forget that he's only 22.

He is already getting noticed, and perhaps it was no coincidence that, among those watching the Rushden game, was former U's manager David Kemp, now assistant manager at Stoke City.

Ex-United manager Denis Smith, who has close contacts with his old club Stoke, has seen Foster for himself two or three times this season and probably urged Kemp to take a look at him.

Boss Darren Patterson said, if he'd had the chance, he would have given Foster two player of the year votes.

The manager said: "I think if he progresses as he has done, then the sky's the limit. Off the field, he is living his life so much more professionally. He is listerning and learning and if he keeps going as he is, then my phone will be red hot."

But Fozzie has no intention of going anywhere, and has high hopes of the team finding success next season.

"I want to be here for as long as I can, and hopefully I can improve, as I did this season," he said. "You can see the amount of confidence and belief we're playing with, compared to the beginning of the season.

"It's eight wins out of ten now. I know it's easier said than done and the momentum's going to slow down with pre-season and everything, but it's a young, hungry squad, and if we can maybe get a couple of additions, we've got a real good chance next season. But there's a lot of hard work to be done.

"It's not going to be easy, we know what the league's made of, it will need a lot of hard work.

"The ability wasn't a problem, it was just the belief and confidence.

"Darren and Mickey have been drilling it into us day in, day out, that we are good enough. We've worked on a lot of things and it's started to pay off.

"I know for the fans it's too late and they will think 'if only we'd done it a bit earlier', but we've ended the season on a high, and that's a reward for the fans, more than anything."