When you put it like that PT, the gulf in class between now and then is astounding. Can’t believe we had those players all playing for us in the 4th tier.
Although some of them were to become betyer players e.g. dann and fox in particular, it was the combined unit of them that made it all work so well.
I really loved that season and seeing us play well. And that means playing well so we keep a clean sheet And look assured, not always so we score a hatful of goals.
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Agree with all that, and even then Cambridge only beat us with 2 penalties we gifted them.
Salford ground out the win against us rather than doing anything out of the ordinary and turning a possible draw into a relatively comfortable win, as teams challenging for promotion or play offs generally do.
Unfortunately we have a knack of turning what should be those probable draws into defeats rather than wins.
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And that is partly my point. We should never have been relegated with that side and we were a class above most of the others in that league.
Now we aren’t, but that doesn’t mean it is any poorer, just that we are.
I once bet a mate that I would score 10 out of 10 pens against him in a kick about and won the bet.
Yes the odd pen is missed but our scoring ratio is abysmal.
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Impressive, unless your mate is Warwick Davis
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It was Jonny Brain mate.
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Weston played after the promotion season, the right back in 06-07 was Craig Pead. Despite that, your point stands, invent a time machine and those six players would all be automatic first choices, and it wouldn’t even be a difficult decision.
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Dobson - never understood the hate.
One of only two championship-winning captains we’ve had in our history, and he got booed at the open-top bus parade!
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You’re right. I remember Pead rattling the bar at Shrewsbury on the last occasion I stood at Gay Meadow. And the Pead fact makes it even more apparent that the chasm is between the sticks and the two centre-backs in front. In many ways, Ince was like a third centre half in that he came for everything.
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I managed to get his signed gloves from that season 
Dobson was of similar mould to Chambers, reading the play and sticking his foot in when required.
Fans for some reason always seem to struggle to warm to those players as seems all midfielders should be box-to-box Bryan Robson type dynamos.
Just looking at his C.V and I thought he’d spent all his career at Brentford but he was actually on loan at Reading in the 05/06 season. Reading won the championship that year with 106 points!
Shows how different the budget back then was. Would be equivialent of signing a Leeds squad player last summer.
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We have had our share of great keepers, from Parks, Walker, Wood, Barber, Ince and Etheridge to name a few, i wonder why we are so lacking in that department now?
Yes the Bonse went for it that season with the signings of Ince/ Dobson and Martin Butler.
Sadly Mr. Pomlett ( as nice a guy he seems) can’t compete with the majority in the 4th division.
I don’t think it was until Adam Chambers that we as fans ever appreciated that role in a team.
I remember Coakley swapping out Childs for Goodwin. A move I felt secured us promotion but it was hugely unpopular and Goodwin was never loved. Tom Bennett - exactly the same. Simon Osborn similar. Each got pelters at times, ditto Dobson. In this team, Kinsella does half of the job as well as any of those players which is a huge compliment. Unfortunately his ability to retain possession and sometimes transition the whole phase from without the ball to with the ball and launching an attack isn’t close to those players. It might be that he lacks the quality around him to do that (e.g Chambers might win the ball and launch the attack by going “here you go Jamie, Romaine, Erhun”- quality options that Liam maybe lacks).
One of the clever things Smith did one season when we weren’t blessed with great options at number one was shop in the loan market for very good young keepers. Remember him saying that most PL teams carry four or five quality ‘keepers and are happy to loan a couple out provided that they have instant recall. I think in one season we had Sam Johnston and Karl Darlow. What followed was the Cutler effect of O’Donnell then Etheridge.
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We had Rose on loan from Southampton last season.
With hindsight now if Rose had played the majority of last season instead of Roberts, we could be in a better position with Rose having those 30-40 more games under his belt.
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But Roberts was a great prospect under cuts, the moment he went Roberts regressed ?
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Don’t see the relevance of discussing our goalkeeping situation tonight unless one of them can take a decent penalty.
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Again disagree. We wern’t a class above anyone, other than defensively, our top scorer was Dean Keates !!.
We are poorer, I agree with that, but where are the good teams in this league? I don’t see any. Newport are awful…Carlisle…Morecambe? Seriously???
Cheltenham approximate a good team with Ben Tozer and his sophistated long throw routine for the team that’s currently 6 without a win in all comps including a 3-0 dicking against Barra, during which time they’ve scored 1 goal in the scintillating 1-1 home draw with Stevenage.
Its a crap standard that lost 3 decent teams last year in Crewe, Plymouth and Swindon to replaced by poorer teams. Usually in this league the relegated teams are right up there the following season, not this year, another reason how and why its crapper than usual. as for Harrogate and Barra I was watching them play Whitley Bay not that long back. Just waiting for next season when Torquay and Stockport rip past us on the way up.
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Whatchu talkin bout?
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