The Subs
Tony Sinclair
Sinclair had played a bit of League Two football for Gillingham, but he really was filler in the squad when he arrived. He was an Ineffective full-back who could operate equally as inefficiently at centre half as well. In total, he made 27 absolutely un-noteworthy appearances in our inaugural season in the Blue Square Premier. He was sent off in Steve Tilson’s last match in charge, a horrific 4-0 defeat away at Tamworth. He was sent off in the 60th minute as we trailed 1-0, and his red cad contributed to our former manager getting the boot.
At least he did do something positive for the team.
The new manager David Holdsworth didn’t fancy Sinclair though, he had his own ideas about trialling ineffective players, and as such he Sinclair didn’t play for the club after our 2-0 defeat at home to York on January 7, 2012. Dark times. Speaking of dark times, he later rocked up at Carshalton. Yup, that Carshalton.
Nicky Nicolau
Remember Paul Dobson? He was the player who scored the Torquay goal that sent us down in 1987. To a degree, there are shades of that here – Nicolao was part of the Southend side that beat us at Wembley in 2005. He linked up with his former Southend manager Steve Tilson when he arrived in that sad summer of 2011, and despite him having been with Boreham Wood, Dover and Woking after Southend, I was convinced he was quality. He wasn’t that bad, but he wasn’t great either.
He was a full back who could operate further up-field if needed and in truth he wasn’t a bad player. A bit of the zest that made him a Barnet regular between 2006 and 2009 seemed to be lacking, but he always put in an honest shift under difficult conditions. Injuries meant he didn’t manage to get an enforced spell in the team whilst Tilson was in charge, but the following season he managed a run in the team, scoring four times. He was unable to prevent David Holdsworth from losing his job, and in the summer Nicolau was released.
Josh O’Keefe
I was never sold on O’Keefe, so when he was one of the players retained over the summer, I wasn’t jumping for joy. If we’d done a season preview as we do now, I’d have been picking him on the bench, which is exactly what Steve Tilson did in the first game of the season.
The former Blackburn trainee actually got a rough ride from me, not least because he was part of the 2010/11 side. He didn’t last long after Tilson, he was another Holdsworth didn’t fancy. He moved to Hereford the following season and bagged 13 from midfield, prompting speculation he might get a Football League move. He didn’t, but as of a year or two ago he was still playing for Chorley. He’s likely to pop up as a physio somewhere, he graduated from the University of Salford with a first-class degree in physiotherapy in 2018.