cowl

‘Hate’ wouldn't be the right word, but if ever there was a player that epitomized my frustration with the the club during a particular era, that would've been Paul McLaren. He wasn't untalented and had a manner about him on the pitch that had you thinking he might actually be able to play a bit, but the number of games that just passed him by despite him being deemed good enough to be practically a guaranteed starter was truly astonishing. Potter and JOC were bad, but McLaren was a whole other level.

One player I really rated and was surprised he never really made it as a player was Patrick Collins.

And Bright was certainly a good player for us, and yet I would so often get frustrated with Bright precisely for his finishing too. Of course, his scoring record was very good for us, but really, we created so many chances - he should've had twice as many. I suppose its natural to call Bright Williams' replacement but they were quite different players. Certainly in the modern game we'd have probably looked to have both players in the squad.

GET IN!!!!!

I often feel that whenever we look back on this era that Williams gets far less said and written about him than he deserves. We finished 3rd the season after this too, after all, with Hirst and Williams being our first choice front pairing; the best finish we've had in almost 60 years.

Why's Fox kicking cakeball?

I was actually referring to Dalian - and only realized my mistake after I could no longer edit. I mistook Mark Taylor for him. Since Williams was signed as Atkinson's replacement, I suppose the clue was already there.

I think that's Richie Barker just in front of Big Ron. Three to the right of him I think is Leroy Chambers, and two on from there is Ryan Jones. At the far right I think is Brian Linighan. I recognize the faces of a lot of them actually but I can't quite remember their names.

That must've been taken on one of the first days back training (and certainly before the season started given that Atkinson's on the photo). Quite a number of those first team players had left by the time the season started (or did soon after), and a fair number in the home top were youth team graduates that were nowhere near at the time. And obviously all the lads in the away strip were youth team players. We actually used only 21 players that season and that includes Anderson, Watson, MacKenzie, and Harkes - all of whom were signed after the photo was taken. ‘Bloated’ is the opposite word you'd use for our actual squad that season, though I suppose at the time the photo was taken it was still going through the process of fat-trimming.

Possibly, but that seems kind of arbitrary considering the purpose of such clauses. I mean they are still competitive games. Whatever was said by Mandaric it was the right way to go. Not that Purse's immediate replacements were any better, but we got it right in the end when Megson got the job and brought Batth and Jones in.

In which case he only played 22 league games, and yet he's saying that when he spoke to Mandaric he'd played 28 games (just games as he doesn't specify what competition). So Purse's figure is wrong whatever combo of league and/or cup games are being counted.

I'm talking about 2010/11

8 in the cups because he played in 3 league trophy games too.

Having checked, Purse actually played 30 games in that season, so I'm not sure where he got his "30 games would trigger a new contract" from?

False memory. They barely played together and Purse was already getting dogs' abuse every week before they even appeared in the same team.