2004-05 The Good, The Bad and the Indifferent. So another season gone and so another review of the performances - it probably says something about the season that there are more players in the indifferent category than anywhere else.
There were also a lot of
players, I went off to watch some cricket around Xmas and therefore
missed both Nathan Blake’s and Leandre Griffit’s entire
Anyway here we go, with the ones who stayed in the memory. The Good Lucas Radebe 10 - Good as in God. OK we barely saw him on the pitch but his testimonial was as fun as the season got and he’s been a legend for us over the years. Will be sadly missed. Neil Sullivan 8 - Easily our best player this year. Looked a good signing and has proved so, no glaring errors I can think off and a steady presence behind a sometimes dodgy defence. Made a few penalty saves and even punched Paul Butler for us. Best keeper in the division. David Healy 7.5 - What a waste. We spend a lot of money we don’t really have buying one of the best strikers in the division, someone with a touch of class and vision and we stick him on the wing for most of the year. If there’s one single reason to be dis-satisfied with Blackwell’s management this season, this is it. Healy for his part made an instantly favourable impression and despite being relocated showed some good touches from out wide. However, he faded as the season went on and was probably glad it finished early for him.
Shaun Derry 7.5 - A quiet debut at
Aaron Lennon 7 - Far from the complete package, in a lot of games he only showed flashes of ability rather than being the constant threat we’d like to think of him as. However, there’s no denying firstly the potential and secondly that he was the most exciting thing in a pretty drab team. More willing to run at defenders than even Kewell at his best and showed he could put a decent cross on the end of it at times. Another season in the Nationwide would probably be better for him career wise than sitting on the bench in the Premier, but I doubt we’ll see it.
Rob Hulse 7 - Did enough to justify his
signing and his goals v Reading were probably the highlight of the
season. Big strong, works hard for the team and doesn’t mind having a
shot. However, his confidence did tend to tail off towards the end of
the season (we do that to strikers) and missed a few chances.
Clarke
Matthew Kilgallon 7 - I’m still not totally convinced. He has some great games, when he looks the player we all want him to be, reading the game well and bringing the ball forward at times. But he does have some nightmares. Generally the good games outweigh the poor ones but he needs to play 20 games in a row, at centre-back – so he can settle in the team and we can all find out if he’s really got it.
Gary Kelly 6.5 -
Has had a good solid season.
Helped organise a young defence at times and has made very few mistakes
at the back. Would like to see him produce a bit more going forward but
its 15 years since he was a winger. If we want to try
The Bad
Paul Butler 5 -
I think we probably did need
him early on in the season to give some organisation and stability to
the team and he did a solid job to start with. However his lack of pace
was increasingly exposed and probably only being Captain kept him in the
team. His nightmare at
John Oster 5 - Played in some of our better performances and there’s obviously some talent there but the last thing we need is more players dragging the clubs name through the mud. So f*** off. Sean Gregan 4.5 - OK he got better as the season wore on, but we spend more money on him than most teams in this division spend in a year and for that I expect a bit more. Turned up basically unfit and never really looked like an athlete. There is some ability there, he can pass, although a lot of them go backwards but his main talent is pointing. Pointing at other players to tell them where they should have been when he mishits a pass. Pointing at the free man he should be marking. Pointing at the player he's just fouled because he's not quick enough to keep up. Fourteen yellow cards in a less than complete season says something. It’s says your not fit enough or good enough to be on the pitch.
Marlon King 4 – Nearly made
the invisible pile but popped up and missed a penalty at
Michael Duberry 4 – He’s gone. Hallelujah. The usual headless chicken performances early on until Blackwell sussed him out and dropped him. We thought we’d seen the last of him but reappeared for one last disastrous cameo in the cup, just to remind us what we’d been missing. OK I know we are still paying a lot of his wages, but I’d happily pay all of them to keep him away. Jermaine Wright 3 - At times I can see the point of Jermaine Wright, there was a little patch around November when he looked like he might be the creative player, getting forward to score the odd goal we needed. It was an illusion. Started the season largely anonymous and by the end of the season was almost totally anonymous and ignored. Added nothing, Did nothing. We’d have been better off with Germaine Greer.
Michael Ricketts 2 -
Up there with Paul Okon as
one of the worst players I’ve ever seen. Unfit, lazy, disinterested.
Astonishing to think he played for
And Stoke have sent him back. God help us. The Indifferent
Simon Walton 6 -
Walton does not pass the
ball well enough to be a midfielder. This is why he’s a centre-back. The
couple of times he got a chance there, Wolves and
Michael Gray 6 - A decent enough initial impression, looks comfortable on the ball and uses it intelligently. However, after coming back from suspension but in a couple of mediocre performances where his lack of pace looked like a problem. If he’s happy to join at Nationwide wages I’d keep hold of him but definitely wouldn’t break the bank for him. Brian Deane 6 - In some ways he was still the player he used to be. Missing when it seemed easier to score and hitting the post and bar from a wide variety of positions. Ok he was past it, but that’s hardly his fault, signed as a squad player and substitute and due to the ineptness of others found himself starting most weeks.
Brett Omerod 6 -
Nearly forgot him. Thought
he was a good signing and he tried hard, but he was never going to score
for
Danny Pugh 6 - I feel a bit sorry for him. Started the season with a bang but thereafter was in and out of the team and was a prime casualty of the switch to 4-3-3. In a straight 4-4-2 he could stay wider and was proving a useful provider of goals but not really combative enough for the narrower role. Still ended up only one goal short of being our topscorer. For a converted left-back you can’t complain about that. Frazer Richardson 5.5 - Another full-back playing in midfield who started well and faded. Again would probably have benefited from a regular position but unlike Lennon doesn’t have pace or age on his side. Get the feeling that if he was going to make an impact he’d have done it by now. Been around since the European days after all.
Simon Johnson 5.5 – Never
thought he was cut out for the Premiership and his initial appearance at
Pompey promised little for the Nationwide. He then had a decent game
against
Glyfi Einarsson 5.5 - Made a very good initial
impression with a Man of the Match performance at
Stephen Crainey 5.5 - Not quite sure why we played a decent sum of money for him. Played a few competent games, took a couple of crap free-kicks and got injured. Julian Joachim 5.5 - I was about to say that he deserved more chance to proof himself but I looked it up and he actually played in 31 games – starting 13 of them – so he really should have made more of an impact. I think I might get 2 goals in 31 games – that’s about my Lards average. The Invisible
Jamie McMaster – We need more than a few nice touches in the last ten minutes. Neat but unthreatening footballer. Eirik Bakke – A few minutes as a sub and that’s all we saw of him. If he can get and stay fit he has the ability to be a dominating force in the Nationwide. If !! Seth Johnson – Had just played his best game at QPR when we were told he was to be benched for the rest of the year. Can’t really blame him for being injured so much and I doubt any other players would say don’t pay me. Would be a major asset if we could keep him – but I doubt it. Ian Moore – Made little impact in a few end of season kickabouts. Probably no more than a bench warmer. |
