Goalscoring defenders

[Pollingtonblade]

Whatever you want to call him he's scored 4 times as many goals as 'run around' Done, as well as scoring double what run around and Clarke have scored between them.

 

[bornablade]

Freeman reminds me of the old Liverpool defender Chris Lawler - photo of him on the Old Photos thread. Lawler was nicknamed the Silent Knight due to the fact he ghosted into the box and scored some vital goals. The work by Lavery for that goal on Tuesday was crucial. Always said that players that can get to the bye line can cause untold damage to the opponents defence. I think this is an area that our two wing backs can improve on. Lowton was superb at this.
Another goal scoring defender wad Paul Warhurst. Wednesday moved him up front sometime in the early 1990's and he had a return of 12 goals in 12 games. If anything did happen to Billy wonder if Wilder and Knill would consider using Freeman up front.

 

[Revolution]

Freeman reminds me of the old Liverpool defender Chris Lawler - photo of him on the Old Photos thread. Lawler was nicknamed the Silent Knight due to the fact he ghosted into the box and scored some vital goals. The work by Lavery for that goal on Tuesday was crucial. Always said that players that can get to the bye line can cause untold damage to the opponents defence. I think this is an area that our two wing backs can improve on. Lowton was superb at this.
Another goal scoring defender wad Paul Warhurst. Wednesday moved him up front sometime in the early 1990's and he had a return of 12 goals in 12 games. If anything did happen to Billy wonder if Wilder and Knill would consider using Freeman up front.

Wednesday got dead lucky with Warhurst. He only scored 6 league goals - the rest being in Cups and mostly against lower division sides as they spawned their way to 2 cup finals in 1993 - and a gullible Blackburn bought him for 2 million on the strength of that, at which point he broke his leg and never scored much again.

The Pigs were so desperate for goals in 1988-9 that they tried Mel Sterland up front.

 

[Deadly_D'Jaffo]

Another string to KF's bow this season is how composed he is with the ball.

When he first came I didn't think he had much going for him in this area and thought he was a kick'n'rush type fullback ala Matt Hill.

Wrong. He has complimented the midfield trio with some neat give'n'go football and his ability to time attacking runs is exactly what Fleck & Coutts are always looking for.

Wilder needs crediting with looking at the types of players he inherited and adopting a 3-5-2 system to their strengths.

 

[Revolution]

Another string to KF's bow this season is how composed he is with the ball.

When he first came I didn't think he had much going for him in this area and thought he was a kick'n'rush type fullback ala Matt Hill.

Wrong. He has complimented the midfield trio with some neat give'n'go football and his ability to time attacking runs is exactly what Fleck & Coutts are always looking for.

Wilder needs crediting with looking at the types of players he inherited and adopting a 3-5-2 system to their strengths.

We all know how well Wilder has done but I think that this may have passed a lot of people by, as if they know about League One at all they just know that we are top and assume that's because we have more money than everyone else.

That of course is not true. The story of this season is a great one (and I hope and expect it will have a happy ending) and I hope someone in the national media looks below the EPL at the end of the season and writes it.

 

[BushBlade]

We all know how well Wilder has done but I think that this may have passed a lot of people by, as if they know about League One at all they just know that we are top and assume that's because we have more money than everyone else.

That of course is not true. The story of this season is a great one (and I hope and expect it will have a happy ending) and I hope someone in the national media looks below the EPL at the end of the season and writes it.

When you say 'media' do you mean 'press'? I don't really read papers but I listen to Talksport a lot and they praise us quite frequently. I've heard several ex-player pundits saying what a great manager CW is.

 

[Revolution]

When you say 'media' do you mean 'press'? I don't really read papers but I listen to Talksport a lot and they praise us quite frequently. I've heard several ex-player pundits saying what a great manager CW is.

Yes, that's more accurate.

 

[Silent Blade]

Freeman reminds me of the old Liverpool defender Chris Lawler - photo of him on the Old Photos thread. Lawler was nicknamed the Silent Knight due to the fact he ghosted into the box and scored some vital goals.

I love this story about the quiet man of Anfield, Chris Lawler, and his former boss Bill Shankly. Bill used to take training sessions very seriously when it got round to the 7–a-side matches and this day we were playing without proper goals. Bill hit a shot and claimed a goal which everyone else knew would have gone over the bar. Anyway, to try and get some support for his view that he had scored he turned to Chris and asked him whether it was a goal or not. Chris said that it wasn’t and would have gone over the bar and Bill had everyone in stitches when he turned round and told anyone who would listen: ‘He doesn’t say a word for years and then when he does he tells a lie.’”

 

[1danewhitehouse]

Yes, Gage deservedly won player of the year that season. I just re-watched the goals from the 6-3 Luton win on youtube. It is interesting to see the positions Gage gets into in the penalty area - he's just like Freeman.

To my mind Freeman is neither one thing or the other - Wing back is a hybrid position. He's not doing what Colin Morris did, but he's not doing what Chris Wilder did either.

I agree that it's an exceptional season. In fact, you might describe it as a "where the Hell did that come from?" season or half season, where a player far outperforms what he's done in the past and there was no indication that he was ever capable of that level of performance. Other examples:

Adrian Littlejohn 1992-3
Bob Booker, everything after Mansfield in April 1989
Marcus Bent, second half of 1999-2000
Ched Evans, 2011-12.
Paul Coutts, this season

Michael Brown 2002-03

 

[Mad Mick]

Len Badger played right back, but he did score some cracking goals. Not sure if he ever got 9 in a season. Mind you he played all if not most in the top 2 divisions.

 

[Mad Mick]

Just checked, he clearly didn't score many, which is why they were so memorable.