Martyn Woolford

Deserves a thread of his own by the sound of the commentary yesterday!

Feels like after a few injury hit seasons before he came to us, he’s finally finding his rhythm again. He arrived last season with no pre season under his belt, and having not played much football recently...then had a really stop start season when he was in and out the squad until Jolley arrived.

The guy has been a goal scoring winger/attacking midfielder in league one and the championship most of his career and that quality/experience is starting to show. Sounds like he was taking it past players for fun yesterday, and as we saw yesterday, and at Wycombe and Accy last season, he is a calm finisher when presented with an opportunity.

Good on him.

Yes, he was excellent yesterday. He ran rings around their defence, so pleased to see him playing like he obviously knows he can.

Very good yesterday-just wish he’d played that one across the goal instead of shooting, although you could argue he deserved the shot after turning their defenders inside out singlehandedly!

Good show, rejuvinated since MJ and his team came. At times he was gliding past people like they did not exist

Class player I certainly stand corrected on this one. Best player on pitch yesterday. My opinion changed versus Chesterfield last year when he was the one leading the charge under pressure and showed a lot of bottle. UTM

He will also have benefited from a proper pre-season this time round.

Imo best postion was what he was playing yesterday , out wide .

Not lightning quick but fast enough but its his workrate and experience that means atm its his shirt to lose.

He has started very well.

I agree with the above, clearly a pre season has helped massively, very clever player IMHO.

Agree Jonnyboy about his best position but think that the team in general is improving as they get used to M.J.'s requirements and also vice versa. Happy times ahead but am not going to get too disheartened if the odd hiccup

Quoted from Zmariner

Class player I certainly stand corrected on this one. Best player on pitch yesterday. My opinion changed versus Chesterfield last year when he was the one leading the charge under pressure and showed a lot of bottle. UTM

I got a red cross for this comment there really are some numpties around

Quoted from Zmariner

I got a red cross for this comment there really are some numpties around

You will just have to ignore them,I think you will find that the person who gave you the red x will have also given you red x's on a lot of posts. It's a problem they have and you must have previously upset them.. Their brain hasn't grown with the rest of their bodies.

Quoted from golfer

You will just have to ignore them,I think you will find that the person who gave you the red x will have also given you red x's on a lot of posts. It's a problem they have and you must have previously upset them.. Their brain hasn't grown with the rest of their bodies.

Golfer is right!

The unfortunate world of the Fishy..... Have a dissagreement with somebody once and forever be red crossed!

Man of the match by a country mile superb performance showed a cool head in a rip-roaring derby atmosphere.

Quoted from Zmariner

I got a red cross for this comment there really are some numpties around

It seems to be an unwritten rule on The Fishy that if you mention red crosses on a post then your post highlighting this must be inundated with red crosses.

Son Of gets a red cross on everything he posts inc, once on a match thread saying  'YES get in there'  when we scored  

We know they’re imps on here, fairly obvious red crosses are by such people........why let it bother you.....

Quoted from Madeleymariner

Son Of gets a red cross on everything he posts inc, once on a match thread saying  'YES get in there'  when we scored  

Then you should be nicer to your boy Madeley and not give them to him

Maybe make like Tommy Forecast and ignore crosses!

Quoted from rancido

It seems to be an unwritten rule on The Fishy that if you mention red crosses on a post then your post highlighting this must be inundated with red crosses.

I am not going to mention ???  ???????  anymore so if anybody wants to give me  ??? ??????? they can.  ??? ??????? don't mean a thing

Anyway back to the Martyn Woolford bit......., I think once MJ has all his full/wing backs fit I’d expect us to go 3 at the back and Woolly in the middle sending balls into the channels for the strikers and switching around play.

Woolford was playing more as an attacker yesterday as opposed to a midfielder. He got the space to play and attack (pretty well) because of the work of Welsh, Hessenthaler and Clifton in the middle. I'd prefer not to see him playing centrally.

I'd definitely continue with Woolford playing in the RFW position... He ran Lincoln ragged yesterday and looked back to the player he was during his best Scunny days.

I think we lose some of his threat and flair when played in the centre as evidenced against Forest Green and Rochdale where he was fairly ineffectual!

It was an absolute pleasure to witness that performance from Woolford yesterday. He was comfortable playing with his right and left foot but the way he held defenders off and killed our defensive clearances dead with his first touch was a joy to watch.

He has never been the quickest and he's undoubtedly lost a yard or two of pace but at this level, a fully fit and firing Woolford is gains that yard back in thought and deed.

His run in the 2nd half when he beat the defender for strength and pace round the outside then got in the box and sat the next defender down before firing a shot away was class. Shame it didn't end in a goal.

Woolford always shines in a 4-5-1 formation with young legs near him in midfield, ie Hessenthaler, Clifton or Rose.

It suits him better to be playing wide. If you have got a tricky winger it always draws 2 defenders out wide leaving more space inside. On Saturday he was even drawing a third defender out of position

Not going to lie, I had him on my released list at the end of the season but to the start of this one shows us why he wasn’t. Also why I am not a football manager.

When he first came here last season, there were 2 or 3 games at BP where he was the best player on the pitch i thought, and you could clearly see he had played at a higher level, but then, like most of the rest of the team, he declined and became a figure of derision with most fans. Skilful players like him always get it in the neck when the team is doing badly, because they are perceived as "not getting stuck in" and fighting for the cause, but that's not his game. Slade took away all the players confidence with his negative, boring, flip chart football. Classroom sessions under him must have been incredibly dull, judging by his fans forum presentation.

You could see on Saturday, what a change of manager and mindset can do for a player. Their left back must have been having nightmares, and Woolford did such a number on him, that even Davies skinned him at one point. Sometimes it's not the fault of the player that he isn't performing, more that he isn't being utilised in the right way, or given the right mindset by the manager. Some managers seem to be able to bring out the best in players, and they are usually the successful ones.

Quoted from ginnywings

When he first came here last season, there were 2 or 3 games at BP where he was the best player on the pitch i thought, and you could clearly see he had played at a higher level, but then, like most of the rest of the team, he declined and became a figure of derision with most fans. Skilful players like him always get it in the neck when the team is doing badly, because they are perceived as "not getting stuck in" and fighting for the cause, but that's not his game. Slade took away all the players confidence with his negative, boring, flip chart football. Classroom sessions under him must have been incredibly dull, judging by his fans forum presentation.

You could see on Saturday, what a change of manager and mindset can do for a player. Their left back must have been having nightmares, and Woolford did such a number on him, that even Davies skinned him at one point. Sometimes it's not the fault of the player that he isn't performing, more that he isn't being utilised in the right way, or given the right mindset by the manager. Some managers seem to be able to bring out the best in players, and they are usually the successful ones.

Yep agree with that. Also having Welsh, Hessenthaler doing the physical stuff allows him to do what he does best.

Quoted from ginnywings

When he first came here last season, there were 2 or 3 games at BP where he was the best player on the pitch i thought, and you could clearly see he had played at a higher level, but then, like most of the rest of the team, he declined and became a figure of derision with most fans. Skilful players like him always get it in the neck when the team is doing badly, because they are perceived as "not getting stuck in" and fighting for the cause, but that's not his game. Slade took away all the players confidence with his negative, boring, flip chart football. Classroom sessions under him must have been incredibly dull, judging by his fans forum presentation.

You could see on Saturday, what a change of manager and mindset can do for a player. Their left back must have been having nightmares, and Woolford did such a number on him, that even Davies skinned him at one point. Sometimes it's not the fault of the player that he isn't performing, more that he isn't being utilised in the right way, or given the right mindset by the manager. Some managers seem to be able to bring out the best in players, and they are usually the successful ones.

Their left back Toffolo(?) was considered a top signing for the Gimps. Was on loan last season at Scunny from Norwich and kept Townsend out the side for a time. Signed for big money on a 3 year deal and looked woeful on Saturday.

Toffolo was getting some serious stick from Danny Cowley in the second half. Not sure that will have done his confidence much good.

Woolford was a joy to watch on Saturday.  He reminds me of Alex Rodman in the way he has very little pace but that ability to just glide past defenders with either a dropped shoulder or a casual drag-back.  You can see it coming but no-one ever seems to anticipate it, I suppose it's a bit Dave Gilbert like too.

The benefit of him in a midfield 3 last season was experience and his ability to calm things down when we needed to.  We don't need that this season, especially with Welsh in there.  We'll get more out of Woolford the closer he is to the opposition goal.

When Woolford signed last summer I thought he was going to be a great signing,. I remembered him from his Scunny days in particular and he had a good record in L1 and the Championshp.

Needless to say for much of last season he did not live up to expectations. Whether it was the role his was asked to play, the formation or his general fitness he was a huge disappointment. When MJ took over Woolford got into the team and played a significant role in our survival.

A healthy pre-season under his belt he was MOM for me on Saturday and looked like the player i thought we had signed a year ago. Showed his experience and quality. He is a very good player for this level.

Lets hope he stays clear of injury and keeps this kind of form up. Pleased for him on a personal level because he got some stick last season from sections of the crowd.