As 2009 comes to an end, the Evening Post is giving Bristol Rovers and Bristol City fans the chance to vote for their player of the decade.

To help jog your memory, every week we will profile a candidate from each club.

In the coming weeks we will profile Nathan Ellington, Richard Walker and Rickie Lambert for Bristol Rovers.

And for Bristol City we will feature the Robins' Louis Carey, Scott Murray and Leroy Lita.

But your vote isn't just restricted to those players.

You can choose your own favourite between now and the closing date on Monday, December 28, so get your thinking hat on and get voting.

How to vote: It couldn't be simpler. Click on the poll attached to this article and on our City and Rovers pages.

You haven't featured the player I want to vote for! Then leave a message below with the name of the player we've missed and we'll add him to the poll.

This week we start with two midfielders: Bristol Rovers' Vitalijs Astafjevs (below) and Bristol City's Brian Tinnion.

VITALIJS ASTAFJEVS:

Former Bristol Rovers midfielder Vitalijs Astafjevs became the most capped European player of all time earlier this month.

However, the highly-talented Latvian was rarely fully appreciated at the Memorial Stadium where he stayed for just over three years.

Rovers were Astafjevs’ first club outside his homeland – following seven titles with Skonto Riga – and his inability to speak English and his less than tireless work ethic counted against him.

Signed to provide the spark for a promotion push in 1999-2000, he was only brought to England after then manager Ian Holloway sweet-talked a tribunal into giving him a work permit.

The midfielder’s fourth and fifth games for the Pirates were both 4-1 away wins, against Luton and Oldham respectively.

At Boundary Park he scored one and set up two more in the first half-hour before the Latics got a grip of him and he was taken off on a stretcher.

Rovers had been second in Division Two when the Latvian signed but they won just once in the final ten games of that season to finish seventh and outside the play-offs.

The following year the skilful Astafjevs helped Rovers beat Everton on penalties in the League Cup and avoid defeat until October.

But Rovers slumped horribly in the middle section of the campaign and, despite goals from Astafjevs in wins over Oxford and Colchester, the Pirates were relegated to the league’s basement division for the first time in their history.

The 2001-02 campaign was the least distinguished of Astafjevs’ time in Bristol as he scored just twice as Rovers lost half their games.

The Pirates’ fortunes were similar the next year under Ray Graydon as the Gas again flirted with the Conference.

But just as the trap door loomed, Astafjevs scored four times in six games to ward off the threat of relegation.

And then he was off, released by Graydon and tempted by Austrian first division side Admira Wacker.

Throughout his time at Rovers Astafjevs remained Latvia’s captain and his career highlight arrived a year after leaving the Mem when the Baltic state qualified for Euro 2004 in Portugal.

Astafjevs played in a defeat to the Czech Republic – in which he nearly scored – a draw with Germany and a loss to Holland that saw the plucky Latvians bow out at the end of the group stage.

At 33 that would prove to be the end of most international careers but not for Astafjevs.

On November 14 Astafjevs won his 158th cap for Latvia in a friendly against Honduras in Riga, passing the 157 appearances made by Estonia midfielder Martin Reim, who retired last year.

While the world record for international caps of 181 – held by Saudi Arabia goalkeeper Mohamed Al-Deayea – appears unlikely for the 38-year-old, never say never.

“I will play while my help is needed in the national team but will not look into numbers. If this means breaking the records, it’s pleasing,” he said recently of an international career that began in 1992.

Unless Astafjevs is appointed manager those 23 further caps look sure to be beyond him but the midfielder is still going strong back in his homeland for Ventspils and is remembered fondly by the Pirates faithful.