Players who were tried in new positions without success

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Good player Kevin Lewis. I remember him coming back to play at the Lane with Liverpool and looking impressive. I think he had an excellent goals per game ratio for a winger.

Good-looking lad, cool hairstyle - but then the Beatles came along

 

[Klaatu Barada Nikto]

Didn't Blackwell play Greg Halford up front & Billy Sharpe out wide in his wonderful tenure Seem to remember
Think Bassett once tried Pembo up top as an experiment after pigs had some success with Warhurst converting him from a centre half ?
Marvin Johnson as a left wing back during 18/19 season , cost us points against Bristol City at The Lane & Rothm away off the top of my head

Wasn’t halford playing up front when he scored the only goal to take us through to the 09 playoff final?

 

[Revolution]

Wasn’t halford playing up front when he scored the only goal to take us through to the 09 playoff final?

He was. As usual when we are in a playoff campaign, most of the forwards were injured. hence Craig Beattie's non performance at Wembley.

 

[Shadota]

Didn't Blackwell play Greg Halford up front & Billy Sharpe out wide in his wonderful tenure

Don't remember Sharp playing wide (although you could tell me many absurd tactical decisions were made by Blackwell and I'd probably believe you), but Halford was the epitome of "utility player". He played pretty much every outfield position during his career at some stage.

Jags playing right back against Wigan in relegation decider

Jags was a RB for us far before that. In the 2002-03 season in particular he played a lot of games there until he replaced Shaun Murphy in the middle.

Tyrone Thompson was a youth striker who Warnock started in midfield alongside Stuart McCall (I think?) in a cup game

Yep. Vs Ipswich in the 4th round 2003. Absolutely bonkers match as well that one. We were 3-0 up (including a screamer from Michael Brown), and then they scored 3 in 4 minutes to level it up. Queue an injury time winner from Peschisolido to send us through to the next round.

Sadly we didn't learn from that Ipswich fightback though. Played them away in the league the following week, and lost 3-2, from being 2-0 up against 10 men.

 

[Klaatu Barada Nikto]

Jags was a RB for us far before that. In the 2002-03 season in particular he played a lot of games there until he replaced Shaun Murphy in the middle.

I forget why he was at right back in the first place, Delboy was playing left back ,so I assume whoever was LB at the time was injured.

 

[raimond]

The Northampton programme had our players with the wrong numbers. Bob Booker was down as number 1. During the warm up before the match, Bob had keeper's gloves on and was in the net for a minute or two. Blades fans behind the goal had a good laugh!

Billy did come on at centre half though as sub (I can't remember who got injured but he played the whole 2nd half I think) against QPR in 90/91 and didn't give their strikers a sniff, won 1-0

 

[Bert]

Correct.

Thanks

Bert's memory still fully functioning.

 

[DifferentClass]

Good-looking lad, cool hairstyle - but then the Beatles came alongView attachment 198587

Can't beat a good DA!

 

[Jan Age]

He was brilliant at keeping anyone that Warnock told him. I refer to the cup semifinal when he didn't give Patric Viera a kick ( he was arguably the bestest midfielder in the world at the time). Viera was hooked after 70 minutes.

He did the same with Berkovic when we played Man City at the lane… he was also hooked and ran over to shake Monty’s end before leaving the field

 

[joe casey]

Matty Done was a left back turned striker, hardly scored, dunno if he carried on up front after us?

Tbf to him he got 8 in 18 in that first season having only signed in Jan - he'd already scored 7 for Rochdale when we signed him. It was after that it dried up for him, managing no more than 6 goals a season for the rest of his career

 

[Shadota]

I remember us playing Scougall up front as something of a lone striker on his debut. Came on in the FA Cup at home vs Fulham when we were down to 10 men. To his credit he did go on one mazy run which gave us some respite from Fulham's pressure, but target man he is not

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Wasn’t halford playing up front when he scored the only goal to take us through to the 09 playoff final?

I think so because Henderson was out for rest of the season

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Don't remember Sharp playing wide (although you could tell me many absurd tactical decisions were made by Blackwell and I'd probably believe you), but Halford was the epitome of "utility player". He played pretty much every outfield position during his career at some stage.

Jags was a RB for us far before that. In the 2002-03 season in particular he played a lot of games there until he replaced Shaun Murphy in the middle.

Yep. Vs Ipswich in the 4th round 2003. Absolutely bonkers match as well that one. We were 3-0 up (including a screamer from Michael Brown), and then they scored 3 in 4 minutes to level it up. Queue an injury time winner from Peschisolido to send us through to the next round.

Sadly we didn't learn from that Ipswich fightback though. Played them away in the league the following week, and lost 3-2, from being 2-0 up against 10 men.

Blackwell always wanted a big target man & Henderson was out so put Halford up there

 

[davey1889]

Graham Benstead was named as sub at Bristol City for the last game of 88/89. Have a memory he came on near the end as an outfield player but this could be wrong...

 

[HarryHaslam]

There was a game under Kendall where we put reserve goalkeeper Carl Muggleton on as an outfield player. Were there only three subs and we'd used the other two, and then we got another injury?

Also John Burridge and Paul Tomlinson both played outfield in friendlys for us. Can’t remember who against though, both may have even scored if my memory’s right.

 

[Silent Blade]

Graham Benstead was named as sub at Bristol City for the last game of 88/89. Have a memory he came on near the end as an outfield player but this could be wrong...

Didnt come on. Before the game we were 3 points ahead of Port Vale but our goal difference were better by 12 goals. We were allowed 2 subs at the time so Dave Bassett decided that one of the subs would be the keeper.

 

[VwBlade]

Blackwell always wanted a big target man & Henderson was out so put Halford up there

When he asked Sun Jihai to play in midfield and he refused

 

[10-0 win]

Midfielder Keith Eddy played ch when needed so well that Furphy wished he had two Eddys. Probably one of our better players in the team that almost reached europe. Unsung hero in his rather short but sucsessfull stint

 

[Newbury Blade]

McEveley and Alcock as a centre back pairing. Both were full backs and Alcock was just too small for CB. The fact Clough tried it for the first time in a second leg semi final play off beggars belief. The 1 goal deficit we started the game with was -4 after only 15 minutes. Rather than go with Collins a recognised CB who had been consigned to the u21's Clough let his obstinance get in the way of logical thinking. Incredibly the team managed to get the game back to 5-5 only losing on aggregate 6-5. It wasn't the time or the place to experiment. That result hastened Clough's departure and rightly so.

Yes, entertaining game though. And Che Adams made it 6-5 but it was dussllowed

 

[Willie Carlin]

A young reserve centre half called Charlie Bell played centre forward in one game. Silent May remember!!

 

[Silent Blade]

A young reserve centre half called Charlie Bell played centre forward in one game. Silent May remember!!

Played in 3 league plus 1 league Cup in October and November 1966. Scored in 4-1 defeat at Sunderland.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Also John Burridge and Paul Tomlinson both played outfield in friendlys for us. Can’t remember who against though, both may have even scored if my memory’s right.

Correct. John Burridge scored twice against Guernsey XI 12/5/86. Paul Tomlinson scored against Dallas Americans 31/5/85.

 

[Bergen Blade]

I read somewhere that Geoff Taylor always wanted to try Roger Nilsen in midfield. Bassett obviously didn't agree.

Rob Page played right back in his first few games for us. The argument was that the solid and experienced defence of Page, Murphy, Curle and Phelan would take care of the defending and allow us to play out and out wingers - Devlin and Ndlovu. It didn't work and may have been to rigid and static. Page was then switched to centre half.

 

[Silent Blade]

Len Badger played in midfield in a few occasions especially in September and October 1972. He returned to the side after injury but John Harris wanted Steve Goulding to carry on playing at right back. Len then wore the number 8 shirt until Goulding got dropped from the team.

 

[St Annington]

Jokanovic tried Brewster at right wing back or right midfield I seem to recall.

 

[Sithblade]

Also John Burridge and Paul Tomlinson both played outfield in friendlys for us. Can’t remember who against though, both may have even scored if my memory’s right.

Can remember pictures in a programme of Tomlinson playing outfield and maybe scoring in a pre season trip to the USA mid 80s.
Edit see Bergen has confirmed who it was against.

 

[Willie Carlin]

Len Badger played in midfield in a few occasions especially in September and October 1972. He returned to the side after injury but John Harris wanted Steve Goulding to carry on playing at right back. Len then wore the number 8 shirt until Goulding got dropped from the team.

Remember that period well.

 

[Bergen Blade]

Leon Britton deserves a mention. Neat ball player, but not creative. Blackwell thought he could turn him into a number ten.