Mcatee

Quoted from blackandwhitelaces

Very salty over on the Lincoln site they say on that showing we are going to struggle this season .🫢🫢

Wouldn’t worry about what they say, 80% of them have only been following football for 5 years.

Quoted from Maringer

Hearn was a good striker before injuries got to him, but he was not at all quick. It's really bizarre how so many fans think this and I really don't understand why. He had really good close-control, and a knack of beating a defender with skill but he never ran away from defences in the way that the likes of Boulding, Kabba and Reddy could.

Not sure how much footage of his time with us is still readily-available, but it would be interesting to see exactly how he scored his goals and work out which ones did (or didn't) rely on pace to create the chance.

Hearn was really really quick, especially over the first ten yards, decievingly so. He had such a powerful running stance aswell.

Quoted from LocalLadGTFC

Hearn was really really quick, especially over the first ten years, decievingly so. He had such a powerful running stance aswell.

I was quick at 10, not so much now at 58.

We knew what you meant but I couldn't resist it.

That spell after he broke his duck, Hearn was just sensational to watch.  Every time he got the ball you just felt like something was going to happen.  

Always a thing that was thrown at him was that he was a flat track bully.  Town finished 11th that season, Hearn only managed 3 goals against the 10 sides that finished above us.  That's from a total of 27 in the league.  

Easy stat to throw out there and doesn't take into account that we only took 3 points all season from the top 5 (no top 7 back then).  

Had he not suffered that initial injury he would have gone onto great heights, I'm convinced of that.  I'm not sure exactly what it was, but he just had 'it'.

Quoted from diehardmariner

  I'm not sure exactly what it was, but he just had 'it'.

I get that sentiment.Sometimes in world cups or the European championships or even watching pro football you see players who you take a liking to . For me its raw passion mixed with ability. I saw it in the european championships/world cups of the top of my head recently with Jeremy Doku and Renato Sanches of Belgium and Portugal respectively.

Quoted from LocalLadGTFC

Hearn was really really quick, especially over the first ten yards, decievingly so. He had such a powerful running stance aswell.

He really wasn't. He just wasn't quick . Lots of good attributes, but pace wasn't one of them. Not slow, but he beat defenders by skill, not through pace.

Quoted from Maringer

He really wasn't. He just wasn't quick . Lots of good attributes, but pace wasn't one of them. Not slow, but he beat defenders by skill, not through pace.

I think you must be Billy Whizz.

You think everyone is slow.  

Quoted from Rick12

I get that sentiment.Sometimes in world cups or the European championships or even watching pro football you see players who you take a liking to . For me its raw passion mixed with ability. I saw it in the european championships/world cups of the top of my head recently with Jeremy Doku and Renato Sanches of Belgium and Portugal respectively.

Dunno why you got 3 red crosses for a sensible post. I agree, watching Jude Bellingham for the first time was the same

In my youth, I was quick! Sprinted for the school, etc.
I was a full-back and marked many more skilful players than me out of the game by dint of simply being quicker than them and not giving up if they got past me.

On the odd occasion where I faced an opponent who was as quick as me but more skilful, that's when I struggled.

What really brought home the importance of pace to me was when we played Leicester at Filbert Street in the League Cup in 1999. Although he wasn't scoring too many that season, Jack Lester had developed into a real handful and I was expecting him to cause the Leicester defence all sorts of problems. On the night, Taggart (who I thought was a clodhopper from what I'd seen of him playing on TV, even though he was a full. International) was just way too quick and strong for Lester, who couldn't get a kick. They also had a young Emile Heskey up front and, though he did a lot of falling over to win lots of soft free-kicks, our defenders couldn't cope with his pace and movement when he wasn't on his backside. It was a comfortable a home win as I'd seen and it really made me realise how important the physical side of things are in the professional game.

This explains my thinking as regards pace and footballers. You can learn to be more skilful, you can work harder, you can improve your fitness, you can improve your overall gameplay, but if you're not quick enough in thought and deed, you'll rarely make it at a higher level. This is especially true for attackers. Yes, you get the odd outlier such as Le Tissier, who had enough ability to get away with a lack of pace, but the vast majority of players at the top level are quicker than you'd think - even the ones who look sluggish against their peers on TV.

When Hearn hit his purple patch and people were claiming Chelsea were potentially in for him, I just laughed. The one thing he lacked (injuries aside), was pace and he'd never have made it higher than the lower divisions, even if he'd stayed fit. I'm sure I would have argued the same on here at the time, because he simply wasn't at all quick.

To bring it back mildly on topic I think McAtee is quick enough for, perhaps, Championship level! Certainly quicker and more nimble than Hearn ever was, in my opinion, of course!

McAtee came off the bench again last night in Luton’s friendly match away at Ipswich, in Colchester (no idea why).

A fair bit of chatter on the Avenue of Evil that he might well make the 25 man squad, too.