Ross Hannah

Quoted from MuddyWaters

What a ridiculous post. This MB just wants someone competent to bring the best out of this supposedly better-than-before squad of players. I don't believe Hannah was any better than Southwell last season, I don't believe Shop is ever going to score the volume of goals that he should and the only reason Pittman is here is because of underlying injuries.

Says the poster who starts a thread with A fact for getyourfactsright and then proceeds to "treat" us to another of his bouts of written misery based entirely on his opinion-without a fact in sight.....
When I require your views on my posts I'll P.M. you. This MB is full of "Teams For...X game threads on which people put forward their teams. If you are going to have a go at me then I suspect there will be far better targets than an off the cuff one liner.

Quoted from pontoonlew

Hearn said himself he was frustrated to be sat on the bench when he felt fit.

Fair enough, genuinely missed that.

Quoted from mariner91

No. My point was, there were no claims at the time that Southwell was not getting picked when he was here, they seem to have just surfaced this week! It's bizarre.

Not true. There were people (me inc) who were questioning why Southwell wasn't getting picked when he was the only player knocking in the goals (regardless of the opposition).  Granted I don't think anyone was saying he was the answer to all our prayers, but there were folk saying he was a better option than the usual suspects.

Quoted from barralad

Says the poster who starts a thread with A fact for getyourfactsright and then proceeds to "treat" us to another of his bouts of written misery based entirely on his opinion-without a fact in sight.....
When I require your views on my posts I'll P.M. you. This MB is full of "Teams For...X game threads on which people put forward their teams. If you are going to have a go at me then I suspect there will be far better targets than an off the cuff one liner.

Well get ready for plenty of my views on your opinions because that is what a forum/message board is about. Or am I to believe (with your sanctimonious attitude) that it should only be available for those who wish to toe the party line.

I'm fed up of listening to/reading why we should continue to tolerate 10 years of failure and I see no sign from our current manager that this will change any time soon. Convince me otherwise!

Quoted from mariner91

No. My point was, there were no claims at the time that Southwell was not getting picked when he was here, they seem to have just surfaced this week! It's bizarre.

And are you banging in the goals at a decent non-legue standard like you suggested you could?

Quoted from KingstonMariner

And are you banging in the goals at a decent non-legue standard like you suggested you could?

I think it's fairly evident I was being facetious. But the point remains, he scored more than half of his goals you claimed he was "banging in" against a team roughly 70 places below us in the football pyramid. Take away those goals and he scored 2 against the opposition we'd be facing on a regular basis.

Quoted from mariner91

What did he do with Southwell exactly? Give him some chances to grab his place and see him not take them? And what did he do to frustrate Hearn? Genuinely you've lost me on that one. Winfarrah I agree deserved to keep his place after his first game.

Cook did fairly well in his first season with us but I was still never convinced by him really. His second season he was very poor and looked grossly out of shape. When his chances came he didn't take them. But I do agree you shouldn't slate a player publicly, that is for the dressing room.

Think Southwell could possibly have had a bit more game time than he did...he didn't feature that often last season, always came on as a sub, usually just for the final few minutes (except maybe in the Trophy but didn't he bag a hat trick there?) so all I can read in to that was that Hurst didn't value his efforts or think him worthy of a place in the side. The same as happened with Cook too last season

"Point is that we are without Hearn, Hannah is going through a lean spell, Southwell isn't good enough, Cook is low on confidence and Shop isn't a natural goalscorer." Direct quote from The Old Codger from January. Precisely what I mean by people looking back on the strikers who have left with rose tinted glasses. This was after the game against Maidenhead which he started and obviously didn't impress or take his chance (against lower league opposition as well). Equally I can find very few posts suggesting he should be regularly starting. Admittedly quite a few saying he wasn't as bad as some posters said (which I agree with, he wasn't  terrible and at least put himself about a bit) but it is stretching the truth somewhat to suggest there were quite a few suggesting he could be the answer to our striking problems.

I'd go as far as saying that neither Cook or Southwell are bad players. But they are not the required standard to get a team promoted out of this league which is ultimately what we should be aiming for. And like a lot of strikers throughout the game, sometimes they find their level and bang goals in for fun at that level but the goals dry up quickly by just going up one division. Darryl Clare being a case in point.

Quoted from mariner91

"Point is that we are without Hearn, Hannah is going through a lean spell, Southwell isn't good enough, Cook is low on confidence and Shop isn't a natural goalscorer." Direct quote from The Old Codger from January. Precisely what I mean by people looking back on the strikers who have left with rose tinted glasses. This was after the game against Maidenhead which he started and obviously didn't impress or take his chance (against lower league opposition as well). Equally I can find very few posts suggesting he should be regularly starting. Admittedly quite a few saying he wasn't as bad as some posters said (which I agree with, he wasn't  terrible and at least put himself about a bit) but it is stretching the truth somewhat to suggest there were quite a few suggesting he could be the answer to our striking problems.

I stand by the fact that he wasn't good enough at that time but equally, he wasn't given opportunity to prove otherwise. I now believe he has the confidence that Hannah is sorely lacking.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

I stand by the fact that he wasn't good enough at that time but equally, he wasn't given opportunity to prove otherwise. I now believe he has the confidence that Hannah is sorely lacking.

You could be right. Confidence does wonders for a striker. And should Hannah get some confidence again then he might start contributing. However, my worry is that he lacks the ability to create chances for himself and when the service isn't great he is going to be very limited in chances. So that leaves me wondering when will he ever get that confidence? With few chances and without the confidence to take them (i.e yesterday) then, if anything, the confidence gets worse.