Next Game

Crocombe
Efete, Waterfall, Smith, Glennon (if he's recovered from his illness)
Holohan, Clifton, Morris
Richardson, Pepple (if Taylor isn't fit), Orsi

Lets try a game with lots of pace up front for a change whilst still having some bite in midfield

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

Widdrington over Groves?!!

Midfield was the most difficult for me. As good as Groves was, I did really like Widds.

There are plenty of other players who could easily replace ANY of the players I included, so accept anyones other suggestions. We all have our favourites.

And no Birtles!

Quoted from WayneBurnettsJockstrap

Midfield was the most difficult for me. As good as Groves was, I did really like Widds.

There are plenty of other players who could easily replace ANY of the players I included, so accept anyones other suggestions. We all have our favourites.

And no Birtles!

or Trevor Wymark

Widdrington wasn't fit to lace the boots of Groves who was an absolute colossus for us. I was always singularly unimpressed with Widdrington who I had high hopes for after he joined due to a proper old-fashioned footballer name. Sounded like he could have played alongside Stanley Matthews and Johnny Haynes.

The fact he played most of his football in the lower divisions after his time with us shows the difference in quality between him and Groves.

Quoted from Maringer

Widdrington wasn't fit to lace the boots of Groves who was an absolute colossus for us. I was always singularly unimpressed with Widdrington who I had high hopes for after he joined due to a proper old-fashioned footballer name. Sounded like he could have played alongside Stanley Matthews and Johnny Haynes.

The fact he played most of his football in the lower divisions after his time with us shows the difference in quality between him and Groves.

Joint second most expensive signing in our history, wasn’t he?

In consecutive summers we signed Widdrington, Donovan and Ashcroft; Widdrington and Donovan for £300k and Ashcroft for a record £500k that stands almost 25 years on.

Quoted from Poojah

Joint second most expensive signing in our history, wasn’t he?

In consecutive summers we signed Widdrington, Donovan and Ashcroft; Widdrington and Donovan for £300k and Ashcroft for a record £500k that stands almost 25 years on.

I think he played quite a few games in the Premier League before joining us, but was totally unimpressive to me.

Crazy to think how much money we spent back then, that was quite a lot at the time, although we'd had some big players sales before that and can't really say we spent it well looking at those numbers.

  Crocombe  Cropper  Waterfall  Smith  Glennon  Kiernan  Holohan  Clifton  Khan  Richardson  Orsi                                                              

Quoted from Poojah

Joint second most expensive signing in our history, wasn’t he?

In consecutive summers we signed Widdrington, Donovan and Ashcroft; Widdrington and Donovan for £300k and Ashcroft for a record £500k that stands almost 25 years on.

Which is remarkable at the time.  But it also came at a time when we made a pretty penny from outgoing transfers too.  

Summer of 1996 we sold Groves for £600k and Paul Crichton for £250k, both to West Brom.  Widdrington, Darren Wrack (£100k) and Kingsley Black (£25k) coming in.  A profit £425k

The next summer, with Buckley returning, saw our most lavish period of all time. Groves came back at a bargain £250k, Donovan for £300k and Lee Nogan for £170k.  Total outlay of £720,000 on three players.  An amount I can't even begin to image we would spend 25 years on.  The BoE inflation calculator works that out at £1.25million if we'd done that business this summer.  But it was hugely offset by the £700k sale of Super Clive to Chartlon and John Oster's sale to Everton (varying prices banded for this with the £1.7mill plus add-ons - that never came to fruition the largely accepted one).  Even in a summer of such spending it was a windfall profit of just under £1.7million.  Of course that would have gone someway to offsetting the costs of relegation.

The summer of 1998 was the only summer were our spending was higher than our income from transfers.  No income that summer but Ashcroft for that club record fee of £500k joined by Stacy Coldicott for £125k.  £625k in total.  

Despite that last summer, it was still a period of operating in profit transfer wise.  To the tune of around £1.5million.  If you like it another way, we more or less brought in what we spent and then had a bit of 'football fortune' in the shape of John Oster.  

After that period it was only really the sales of Jack Lester for £300k and Ashcroft for about half of what we paid that contributed to the coffers for a long, long time.  Alan Pouton came in for £100k.  Under Lennie Lawrence we definitely spent the cash a fair bit but never came close to recovering anything the outlay.  

We really were exceptionally well run at that time.

One of my friends told me a tale of being out necking shots with Widdrington (and perhaps his wife?) in the early hours of Saturday before a game. In O'Neill's I think it was. Widdrington wasn't expecting to be in the squad, apparently, but then somebody dropped out due to illness or injury and he found himself selected despite the late night! Long enough ago now that I don't remember if he was on the bench or playing, but it wasn't exactly the most professional approach.

My main memory of him was his habit of pointing into the spaces as he was attempting to close players down, I'd imagine to tell his teammates where they needed to cover, but it certainly helped his opponents know where they could play the ball!

I thought Widdrington was decent, it's just he wasn't Paul Groves.

Groves was a one-off in many ways.  I never thought we would replace Shaun Cunnington and then it turned out the guy who replaced him was even better.  Widdrington wasn't in the same league as Groves, but that doesn't make him a bad player.  

I think he had a bit of stigma as Laws' boy too, which didn't help at the time.  We went from having a really good midfield to a quite average one very quickly.  Widdrington was the mainstay in the 96/97 season but his midfield partner was rarely a consistent one.  A past it Craig Shakespeare, an even more past it Neil Webb, a lightweight Kingsley Black, an out of position Nicky Southall, a poor Paul Trollope.....I think only Michael Appleton coming in gave him a consistent partner for a period.  The next season he was in the team when we started to really get motoring, but lost his place when Wayne Burnett came in on loan in January.    Burnett was different class and with the side that had found its feet, we could afford to go for a more creative player at the expense of Widdrington's style, especially once the defence had really settled.  But he was far from the worst player I've seen in a Town shirt.