08-04-2022, 14:16
I can't help thinking that one of the reasons for a slight upturn in our fortunes has been the presence and contribution of Andy Carroll.
I went to the Reading game earlier in the season when he was playing for them and I remember commenting in the forum that he was shocking and typical of a player on the way out who was stealing a living. In my defence, his only contributions that day were to wave his arms despairingly and clear an Albion corner off his own goal line.
I just want to say how wrong I was. In retrospect, his arm waving was due to the complete lack of ambition shown by his team mates and any level of support when the ball was hoofed up to him. He would have been justified walking off the pitch in protest.
I feel he has been a revelation for us; sure, he lacks any discernible pace - he was never that quick in his pomp - but his ability to hold the ball, control it, put defenders under immense pressure and, of course, to win the ball in the air has made us look, at last, like a team that has some level of attacking threat. I'm not pretending we have solved our problems - it's less than a week from the disgraceful performance at St Andrews - but if we don't give this guy another contract, regardless of the situation with Dike, then Gourlay should resign.
I went to the Reading game earlier in the season when he was playing for them and I remember commenting in the forum that he was shocking and typical of a player on the way out who was stealing a living. In my defence, his only contributions that day were to wave his arms despairingly and clear an Albion corner off his own goal line.
I just want to say how wrong I was. In retrospect, his arm waving was due to the complete lack of ambition shown by his team mates and any level of support when the ball was hoofed up to him. He would have been justified walking off the pitch in protest.
I feel he has been a revelation for us; sure, he lacks any discernible pace - he was never that quick in his pomp - but his ability to hold the ball, control it, put defenders under immense pressure and, of course, to win the ball in the air has made us look, at last, like a team that has some level of attacking threat. I'm not pretending we have solved our problems - it's less than a week from the disgraceful performance at St Andrews - but if we don't give this guy another contract, regardless of the situation with Dike, then Gourlay should resign.
The light at the end of the tunnel is the light of an oncoming train