Simon Church

[Basingstoke Royal]

I would love Church to turn it around and come good like Long - I just cannot see it happening.

Long had pace, strength and an eye for goal and was going through a bad patch. Church has none of these attributes and always seem to be giving about 70% when going into challenges or chasing lost causes.

This season was his big chance and he has failed to make any sort of impact so far. I hope he turns it around and proves us all wrong but at the moment he should be no where near the starting 11.

[Basingstoke Royal]

church is probably the only one of our strikers who has 20 yard screamers in him tbf

Why do you think this?

[FiNeRaIn]

church is probably the only one of our strikers who has 20 yard screamers in him tbf

Why do you think this?

Because there has been evidence of it, he does hit some good long rangers tbf.

Our strike force is pretty piss poor in all honesty.

[facaldaqui]

Weren't people saying exactly the same sort of things about Shane Long this time last season....?

On the whole, no, I think they were saying slightly different things. Shane was playing very well during his goal drought, and most of us recognised that--a lot of the goals we did score could be traced back to him, one way or another--winning the ball, winning (and indeed scoring) penalties and free kicks, disrupting the opposition, etc. I remember him laying one on a plate for Antonio.

Church's critics usually acknowledge his good points--his movement is often sharp, for example. But his all-round influence on the game isn't sufficient to compensate for his shortage of goals--compare him with Le Fondre, who made another one yesterday.

[West Stand Man]

Weren't people saying exactly the same sort of things about Shane Long this time last season....?

On the whole, no, I think they were saying slightly different things. Shane was playing very well during his goal drought, and most of us recognised that--a lot of the goals we did score could be traced back to him, one way or another--winning the ball, winning (and indeed scoring) penalties and free kicks, disrupting the opposition, etc. I remember him laying one on a plate for Antonio.

Church's critics usually acknowledge his good points--his movement is often sharp, for example. But his all-round influence on the game isn't suffiecient to compensate for his shortage of goals.

To be fair, there was a clear split. The weight of uneducated HNA opinion was that Shane Long was a useless waste of space unfit to lace Kevin Doyles boots. A very small hardcore supported the line you suggest above. It was the usual negative posters who can only find fault in all RFC players and who are now targetting the current team/squad.

[Snowball]

he got 12 goals at a rate of a goal every 180 minutes

Most of those were very, very fortunate goals which he battled into the net.
Someone else would shoot, then the ball would rebound straight at him, and he could tap it in from 5~10 yards.
IMHO it was mostly just a run of very, very lucky chances that happened to fall to him, because we as a team were pushing very hard to get goals.
Sure, some of them were good goals, but most were these "pure luck" goals that could have happened to anyone.

I expected him to push on and get around 20 goals in a full season.

Did you really now? That sounds completely unrealistic, if you really thought that you must have some massively rose tinted glasses.

He got his 12 goals in about 12 x 180 minutes = 24 games


If he played a season of 46 + 9 games, a straightforward mutiiple would give him 27/28 goals

Plus it was not unreasonable to expect him to improve. I don't think 20 was a silly estimate.

[Snowball]

To be fair, there was a clear split. The weight of uneducated HNA opinion was that Shane Long was a useless waste of space unfit to lace Kevin Doyles boots. A very small hardcore supported the line you suggest above. It was the usual negative posters who can only find fault in all RFC players and who are now targetting the current team/squad.

BS, don't try to rewrite history. There were like three guys who were very vocal about it, so don't try to make it out that it was a majority - because it wasn't.

Absolute RUBBISH!!

A very large majority of POSTERS were anti-Shane for a VERY long time. And I should know!

Even in his best season they bleated and bleated and bleated about lack of open play goals,
can't score before Xmas, only has brief purple patches etc etc etc

[Ian Royal]

That's kinda because he wasn't scoring from open play before December snowball. It's not like he was getting criticised once he started smashing them in.

[West Stand Man]

Absolute RUBBISH!!

A very large majority of POSTERS were anti-Shane for a VERY long time. And I should know!

Even in his best season they bleated and bleated and bleated about lack of open play goals,
can't score before Xmas, only has brief purple patches etc etc etc

Thank you. That is about how I recall it too.

[loyalroyal4life]

church is probably the only one of our strikers who has 20 yard screamers in him tbf

Why do you think this?

Because on evidence the guy can't score from 2 yards!

[Ian Royal]

Incorrect. If you meet somewhere in the middle between you, you have it right.

There were more than three saying he was useless, but certainly not the majority. The majority were saying he wasn't doing well enough. With a fair few saying positive things and a couple saying he'd be great.

And Mr Snowball (irritatingly) was right. In the end.

[marcusopp]

church is probably the only one of our strikers who has 20 yard screamers in him tbf

Manset can randomly crack 'em in from range too.
Church can sometimes finish well, but he's rarely in the right place at the right time, and often makes the wrong decision.
My mates a WWFC fan (loser!), he said that when church was on loan there, he was "a bit of a nothing player" and "didn't stand out, even in league 2".

[sandman]

he got 12 goals at a rate of a goal every 180 minutes

Most of those were very, very fortunate goals which he battled into the net.
Someone else would shoot, then the ball would rebound straight at him, and he could tap it in from 5~10 yards.
IMHO it was mostly just a run of very, very lucky chances that happened to fall to him, because we as a team were pushing very hard to get goals.
Sure, some of them were good goals, but most were these "pure luck" goals that could have happened to anyone.

I expected him to push on and get around 20 goals in a full season.

Did you really now? That sounds completely unrealistic, if you really thought that you must have some massively rose tinted glasses.

Gary Linekar made a career of 5-10 yard tap ins. I take it you never saw Jamie Cureton either.

[Snowball]

I would say at least 50 Nobbers have trashed Shane, probably a lot more than that.

I SOoooo remember the threads and the muppets who said he wasn't good enough for the championship AND NEVER WOULD BE

[Ian Royal]

Gary Linekar made a career of 5-10 yard tap ins.

You're comparing Simon Church to Gary Lineker?

I think you may have missed the point slightly.

[Snowball]

Simon Church will score more championship goals than GL this season

[sandman]

Well duh. Church plays for Wales so he's never going to score for England.

[Ian Royal]

I'm just saying, Gary Lineker played 80 times for England and scored 48 goals, I don't quite think Simon Church is in the same league.

No one said he was. As I said, you've utterly missed the point. Probably deliberately given your tendency towards straw manning arguments you don't like.

[Rex]

Banging out abuse to Church will not spur him onwards. Shame onm those people.

[Royal With Cheese]

Banging out abuse to Church will not spur him onwards. Shame onm those people.

It worked for Longy.