Middlesbrough defender Daniel Ayala has been named PFA Fans' Player of the Year award for the previous Sky Bet Championship season.

Ayala was the key component of a Middlesbrough back-line which finished the campaign with the best defensive record in England.

Mass confusion

​​​The Spaniard defender picked up the award despite some  confusion at the 11th hour by the host of the award, Sky Sports.

The poll that closed Wednesday night with both Ayala and Sheffield Wednesday's Fernando Forestieri sharing 40% of the vote with the Wednesday man just edging out the competition.

Forestieri shared his delight on Twitter on Thursday, saying: "Morning! I want to say thank you to every1 who voted for SWFC & PFA player of the year! I appreciate all the love."

However watchful Boro fans looked at the coding in the site and found that Ayala had indeed won the vote which prompted Sky to issue an apology and award the trophy to the defender.

Sky Sports said that they "incorrectly reported" the results of the award and were "keen to put the record straight" and wanted to "sincerely apologise" to everyone involved for the "mistaken report".

They continued saying that they wanted to "congratulate Ayala" and "look forward" to seeing him in the Premier League next season and wanted to wish Forestieri and Wednesday the "best of luck" in their upcoming play-off final with Hull City.

Kalas to play no part in Euros

However there was disappointment for one of Ayala's recent partners with young Chelsea defender Tomas Kalas missing out on a place in the Czech Republic squad for this summer's Euro 2016 tournament.

Above: Tomas Kalas has been left out of the Czech Republic squad for Euro 2016 | Photo: The Gazette
Above: Tomas Kalas has been left out of the Czech Republic squad for Euro 2016 | Photo: Gazette

The 23-year-old has three international caps to his name but wasn't named in the squad by Pavel Vrba.

Kalas  failed to nail down a regular place in the last campaign after losing his starting right-back berth to Emilio Nsue, but has refused to rule out a permanent return to Boro this summer.

He told the Gazette that he came to the North-East to "play games" and if he "could get the deal" to permanently move to Boro he would "really think about it".