Conor Wilkinson | Vital Football

Conor Wilkinson

T

Therealwaldo

Vital Squad Member
Pleased to see the contribution that Conor made when he came on in Saturday's game. I have a theory about some of his difficulty in winning fans over. He is actually almost a year younger than Jake Hessenthaler yet Jake still tends to get treated as a 'youngster' whilst Conor seems to be treated as a fully experienced player. (Conor has just become 23 and Jake will be 24 in April.) I think this has something to do with physical appearance. Conor looks more like a 26 or 27 year old both facially and physically (sorry Conor !). I think that means people expect more from him as a result. I think that there's much more development to come from him and I predict that he could become a big player for us in the next couple of seasons.
 
I've long thought this, it's also because he's been brought in from another team.

An average player who comes through the youth team will always be given much more leeway than a player of the same age, whose been brought in.

Perhaps it's a psychological thing of we protect our own, but I've definitely noticed it.
 
Has he done enough to take Eaves's place when he gets that tenth yellow in the next few weeks ?That's the question I keep asking myself .
 
chris who - 12/2/2018 15:48

Has he done enough to take Eaves's place when he gets that tenth yellow in the next few weeks ?That's the question I keep asking myself .
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It wouldn't be a like for like, that for sure. Conor does not have Tom's physical attributes but I think he would benefit from a run of games.

I was looking at Tom Eaves' career statistics on Wikipedia and was struck by the contrast from last season when he scored 4 games in 40 appearances in league two and was released by Yeovil:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Eaves

Tom benefitted from his physical approach which will always appeal to fans (including me) and I think the fans of Priestfield would have liked him even if he hadn't benefitted from the confidence given to him by the Southend hat trick.

Conor struggled as the team struggled at the start of the season then served a suspension followed by an injury. As the OP pointed out, he only became 23 on 23rd January (Eaaaves is 26) so is a young player.

He needs encouragement and patience if he is going to make an impact.
 
I don't think Hessenthaler gets a free ride at all, more to the contrary.

Him and Wilkinson and probably Ogilvie get the most stick from fans and it's for no other reason than they are bang average.

I've never known of a player (other than Miller) in my time as a Gills fan to get stick when they were a quality player.

The abiding quality that Hess and Ogilvie have over Wilkinson is that they at least try hard, Wilkinson is not only poor but he is lazy, I can forgive one, but not the other.

Kudos though, he did win a header that led to a goal, but he shouldn't be being praised to the hilt and declared a potentially excellent player for us for years to come off of one appearance, he needs to consistently play well, a la Eaves.

If any of you saw him as I did at Maidstone, he looked woefully out of his depth against a poor conference team.
 
Not sure Eaves was released by Yeovil. Without checking in believe he turned down their offer to join us on a free .
 
I think Wilkinson has been OK in limited action recently. The thing is, because he is tall people expect him to hold up the ball and be good in the air which he isn't good at. He's usually better used getting the ball in to his feet because he's technically quite good.
 
chris who - 12/2/2018 16:49

Not sure Eaves was released by Yeovil. Without checking in believe he turned down their offer to join us on a free .
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You are probably right, I was only quoting what it said on Wikipedia, which we all know should always been taken with a large pinch of salt unless corroborated elsewhere.

I am not sure how many games Wilkinson has started this season but he did score the winner at Walsall and the equaliser at home to Oxford so IMHO it is a bit early to pass judgement on him.
 
Why our fans tended to applaud players like Denis Oliv was because they could see the ball breaking effort he was putting in week on week.
My son once described him as the hardest working useless player he had ever seen.

Fans will forgive an awful lot but lack of effort isn't one of them - I refer to JET.

All Wilkinson has to do to win over the Rainham End is to give an absolute 100% while he is on the pitch. That means chasing lost causes. Closing down defenders. Making a general nuisance of himself. Putting himself about.
If he comes on for the last fifteen minutes, he should go off feeling like he's played ninety.

There have been many over the years that have looked like they are going through the motions and most are now in non league.

 
I?ll make a couple of excuses for Conor:

- being a gangly fucker when he runs his strides will be longer but less frequent and therefore look like he?s doing less work than someone with a shorter stride pattern.

- being a gangly type it takes him longer to get into his stride so his body won?t react as quickly to certain situations as a player with a better power:height ratio.

The third reason he might seem lazy is that in fact he doesn?t have the same work ethic as others in the team. Lovell has come out before saying he needs to see more from Conor. So yes, he does need to improve in this respect but perhaps not so much as is at first apparent.
 
nibbles - 12/2/2018 17:46

I?ll make a couple of excuses for Conor:

- being a gangly fucker when he runs his strides will be longer but less frequent and therefore look like he?s doing less work than someone with a shorter stride pattern.

- being a gangly type it takes him longer to get into his stride so his body won?t react as quickly to certain situations as a player with a better power:height ratio.

The third reason he might seem lazy is that in fact he doesn?t have the same work ethic as others in the team. Lovell has come out before saying he needs to see more from Conor. So yes, he does need to improve in this respect but perhaps not so much as is at first apparent.
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Can tell you weren?t at the game on Saturday- he charged around as if his life depended on it when he came on vs Peterborough.

Only blot was an unnecessary booking for arguing over a throw in given the other way.
 
Most of us can see the considerable improvement Conor has made since SL took him under his wing. He looked a lost soul under Ade but now knows what is required of him if he wants to hold down a first team place. Wins a good proportion of his headers and has started to hold the ball up better. Yes he was a bit petulant for the booking on Satturday but he's only just turned 23 so still has much to learn. I think we can still expect further improvement and a great back up or replacement for Eaves.
 
Lark - 12/2/2018 18:27

nibbles - 12/2/2018 17:46

I?ll make a couple of excuses for Conor:

- being a gangly fucker when he runs his strides will be longer but less frequent and therefore look like he?s doing less work than someone with a shorter stride pattern.

- being a gangly type it takes him longer to get into his stride so his body won?t react as quickly to certain situations as a player with a better power:height ratio.

The third reason he might seem lazy is that in fact he doesn?t have the same work ethic as others in the team. Lovell has come out before saying he needs to see more from Conor. So yes, he does need to improve in this respect but perhaps not so much as is at first apparent.
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Can tell you weren?t at the game on Saturday- he charged around as if his life depended on it when he came on vs Peterborough.

Only blot was an unnecessary booking for arguing over a throw in given the other way.
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Correct and I?ve said as much in other threads. Glad to see he?s taken Lovell?s comments on board as I don?t think charging around comes naturally to him.
 
shotshy - 12/2/2018 17:31

There have been many over the years that have looked like they are going through the motions and most are now in non league.
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Or like Luke Norris in league two. I think Conor has already shown movement, won more headers and chased more lost causes than Norris did in his whole stay at Gills. :23:
 
GillsBluenose - 12/2/2018 19:50

shotshy - 12/2/2018 17:31

There have been many over the years that have looked like they are going through the motions and most are now in non league.
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Or like Luke Norris in league two. I think Conor has already shown movement, won more headers and chased more lost causes than Norris did in his whole stay at Gills. :23:
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Be thankful that John Knee no longer posts on this board.
 
Sadly there are a small section of our fans that like to pick on one player each season and just give out as much stick as possible. I remember the amount of abuse Rory Donnelly received from this section last season was appalling when Rory was clearly struggling for confidence. He then picked up an injury against Wimbledon I believe and they cheered that he went off injured. There's no place for it as far as I'm concerned and Wilkinson now just seems to be the new target of these so called "supporters".
 
Gillshorse said "I've never known of a player (other than Miller) in my time as a Gills fan to get stick when they were a quality player."

The Priestfield crowd must have changed a bit from my time. Back in the day plenty of stick was given out to the likes of Paddy Richardson (always looked lazy but was a great player for us), Danny Westwood (same), Ken Price (and you couldn't put more effort in than him). Trevor Lee also suffered a lot of stick. He wasn't great for us (like he was at Colchester), but still got near 1 goal in 3, so wasn't useless either.

Plenty of Gills players suffered stick back then. I've just picked out 4 of the better/best ones who weren't immune.
 
Wilkinson looks very lazy in warmups and outside of games, and that carried over a lot onto the pitch before his sending off (unless I'm misremembering and it was actually his debut). I think when he was reintegrated into the squad he looked a lot more "up for it" but with Eaves and Parker scoring and no need to rest them, he's just got to wait on the bench.
 
Noobleton - 12/2/2018 21:44

Wilkinson looks very lazy in warmups and outside of games, and that carried over a lot onto the pitch before his sending off (unless I'm misremembering and it was actually his debut). I think when he was reintegrated into the squad he looked a lot more "up for it" but with Eaves and Parker scoring and no need to rest them, he's just got to wait on the bench.
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Not so sure about Wilkinson having to wait .With Eaves just one booking away from a two match ban .Away at Northampton or Shrewsbury could be the right games to give Wilkinson more of a run out even if Eaves is available for the ninety minutes. With Parker out of touch the timing could be right now he has Murphy trying to win a spot on the bench .
 
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