Under Rated – Rob Burch
It might seem strange for me to pick a good keeper as being underrated, one who went on to win a Player of the Year award, but I think Rob Burch was the best keeper we had until Josh Vickers stepped up.
I like Farms more, don’t get me wrong, but Burch was a safe pair of hands. His saves perhaps kept Jacko mid-table rather than any lower, and he organised his box well, even if the defenders didn’t always respond. However, Rob Burch suffered, certainly in my household, because he replaced Alan Marriott, my favourite keeper of all time.
Mazza was bombed out of the club by Jackson, something I will never forgive, but Burch was probably a better keeper. Keeping both would have been better, having two great stoppers would have increased competition for places and maybe when Burch left, Mazza could have stepped up and saved us the indignity of Anyon, Parrish and Carson.
Who knows. What I am sure of though, is that Burch deserved football much higher than he eventually got.
Personally i hate oakes.Pulled a sicky but was fine walking around Burton Waters alittle while later.
I agree with you on all these, except on Patulea. Yes, he missed as many chances as he scored, but he still managed to be our top scorer with 11 goals in his 31 league appearances (14 of which he was only a sub). The best strikers usually miss as many as they score, but at least they get into the right place to do so. Interestingly, we took 47 points from the 31 games he played, and only 12 from the 15 games he didn’t play.
Hmm
Players I’d forgotten, some remembered with a shudder, but take issue with some of the ratings. Aaron Brown? Meh, average at best. Agree Rob Burch was a good keeper, let down by a deteriorating defence under Sutton. Paul Green (Schoey signing) was a good and versatile player blighted by injury.
Kovacs I liked, no McAuley but he ‘laid it on the line’ as they say.
Patulea ‘missed as many as he scored’ but that was John Ward’s modus operandi, the point is they both had the instinctive awareness to get in position to miss, dust themselves down and bury the next one, two very similar players. Patulea’s problem wasn’t lack of talent, it was prima donna tendencies.
Jacko was ‘a good manager’ when Neil McDonald was his assistant. When McDonald left, it all went Pete Tong. Doesn’t take much to suss out why.
No ‘Turbo’ Robinson, he of the open goal miss at Stockport??