Town to Sign OIlie Palmer

Quoted from pontoonlew

Ahhh yes, we must not abuse players unless it's popular to do so....

I don't think that's the reason for it. I think the reason he said it was because Hannah has been pretty much useless for over a year now.

Bearing in mind Hurst is unlikely to change his attacking philosophy, he at least has some physical size about him
(6ft 5 acc to GET) and we might actually  now win a few of the long balls for a change, it will be interesting to see if he
does make the line up and at who's expense.

A good squad signing.  Paul Cox - as one would naturally expect - heaped praise on him mid last year.  A tall strong player with a decent record at the non league level.  He's only 22 and not a journeyman which is good.  He's not going to replace LJL.  Sort of player you sling into the fray with 20 mins to go in order to soften up tiring centre backs.  Pity we've not got a fox in the box striker for whom he'd be a good foil.  Hopefully the lad's up for it and is hungry to show his parent club what he is capable off.

Quoted from petethemariner

Bearing in mind Hurst is unlikely to change his attacking philosophy, he at least has some physical size about him
(6ft 5 acc to GET) and we might actually  now win a few of the long balls for a change, it will be interesting to see if he
does make the line up and at who's expense.

I think that's unfair on Pittman and Lenny who actually win their fair share of headers. The problem is that without the men running beyond them on the wings and from the midfield there is little chance of us ever doing anything with these flick ons. So regardless of whether we'll win more or not, unless we start being more positive with our midfield play it won't make a difference.

Ross Hannah is our very own Harry Kane ...............Poch has stuck with him and got the rewards !!!  I think Hannah will come back to bite our arses if he is allowed to leave

and before you start I know Kane and Hannah are along way apart in terms of Levels of Skill etc but Kane looked just like Hannah until he got his run of games ...

Quoted from mariner91

I don't think that's the reason for it. I think the reason he said it was because Hannah has been pretty much useless for over a year now.

I agree entirely. Hannah ,as I have said before, has no pace, strength or graph. He is not involved in the build-up because he's no good on the ball or in the air and can't hold it up. His finishing isn't great and the less said about his free kicks the better. He's got gradually worse since we payed £30,000 for him

Quoted from mariner91

I think that's unfair on Pittman and Lenny who actually win their fair share of headers. The problem is that without the men running beyond them on the wings and from the midfield there is little chance of us ever doing anything with these flick ons. So regardless of whether we'll win more or not, unless we start being more positive with our midfield play it won't make a difference.

Valid points, particularly about getting men beyond our forwards and my comments were not cricticism of LJL and
Pittman, they struggle manfully in the air and as you say do win a few, but its tough giving away inches in height and
being expected to outjump huge centre backs from a standing jump, facing your own goal.

Here's my take on Ollie from a Mansfield perspective.

He gives 100% every game, but Ollie's 100% is sadly not enough for Lge 2 hence us only scoring a paltry 18 goals in 23 league games.

He's found it difficult to gain that 'edge' in Lge 2, that bit of something extra a player needs to make his mark, anticipate where to be and what players are doing around him. I hope he does well for you as he will score some because the defenders are not as good as Lge 2 and below say the top 7 teams in the Conference. He has the weirdest style of running also.

Good luck for the play offs

when did we last score a header ?

Am I the only one thinking 4-3-3 here?

Assuming this Palmer lad isn't glacially slow, you could play him as the target man with Pittman playing off him on the left and LJL off him on the right (where he has played in the past).

This would be the tallest, quickest and strongest forward line we've ever had.

Of course, the problem then is that we would have Arnold, Neilson and Mackreth kicking their heels on the bench. I'm also not really convinced that any of our central midfielders are really suitable to play as 3 across the middle.

Those three up front would certainly give the opposition defence something to think about!

Oh, I'm guessing this signing will mean the departure of Watson is more likely than anything else.