If the EFL were looking to change the opinion that they favour the so-called 'big clubs', then snubbing Sam Szmodics for Championship Player of the Year has done them few favours.

Blackburn Rovers' star man and, more importantly, the league's top-scorer, missed out on the main prize at the EFL awards on Sunday night.

Instead, Leeds United's Crysencio Summerville was handed gold with Leicester City's Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall also falling short.

Considering all of Szmodics' achievements this season, it raised plenty of eyebrows. Not just in the biased Rovers community but from wider Championship observers as well.

READ MORE: Szmodics misses out but Rovers triumphant at EFL awards

This once again comes back to how you judge achievements, with Leicester and Leeds having far more impressive seasons than Rovers. Whilst the other two are trying to win promotion, Rovers will breathe a sigh of relief if they get over the line and secure their league status for another season.

But considering neither Leeds nor Leicester are, by any means, a shoo-in for promotion, should that be factored into an individual award? Or should the fact Szmodics has plundered 24 goals in a struggling side not outweigh that regardless?

We could all debate who is the best player of the three nominated but that is not the point of this accolade. In my mind, and all of the Blackburn Rovers fans', Szmodics was the worthy winner after a magnificent individual campaign.

Regardless, what he has achieved this season will not, and never would have been, defined at the EFL awards.

To have hit 30 league goals, the first man to do so since Alan Shearer, is an unbelievable achievement. When you think of some of the talismanic figures that Rovers have enjoyed in the last decade alone, Jordan Rhodes, Rudy Gestede, Adam Armstrong, Bradley Dack and Ben Brereton Diaz, none of them reached that milestone.

The manner in which has done it is all the more impressive too. Szmodics' performances have never dipped, despite the form of the team taking a nose dive from December. 

Blackburn Rovers needed someone to step up after the summer exits of Brereton Diaz and Dack. With restrictions in place, that was always going to have to come from within the group.

Szmodics' path to the top of the scoring charts has not been linear, at Rovers or throughout his career. He was still playing at Colchester United in League Two at the age of 24.

His Championship lifeline at Bristol City did not go to plan, leaving permanently for Peterborough United after only three league appearances. He enjoyed more success at Posh but was still relegated with a career-best six second-tier goals in 2022.

Szmodics' displays were enough for Rovers to take a punt though and boy has he paid them back. There were signs in the second half of last season that he had acclimatised to Jon Dahl Tomasson's demands and supporters were finally seeing the best from him.

Since the summer, he hasn't looked back. Not even the wildest of predictors could have seen Szmodics' goals coming to this extent. He was a juicy 125/1 to win the top-scorer award in the pre-season betting.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Szmodics has been his consistency. Every goal counts the same but his strikes have been perfectly spread out throughout the season and have been worth 15 points to Rovers alone.

His finishing has become instinctive. He has always been good for a goal whatever level he's played at but he is more clinical than ever in front of goal. The goal against Leeds United was the perfect example.

He was the coolest man in the stadium as he delayed and lifted the ball past Illan Meslier. Many a goal-scorer would have still snatched at that chance, under extreme pressure. Not Szmodics, not this season.

So whilst he didn't go home with the top EFL award, Szmodics knows that he has become the main man at Blackburn Rovers. His goal on Saturday has put them within touching distance of safety.

If they get over the line, safety and the Golden Boot Award will have to do as a consolation prize.