Favourite ever "guilty pleasure" player | Page 2 | Vital Football

Favourite ever "guilty pleasure" player

Andy Thomson for me.

Over the course of his one full season with us, we lost Superbob but acquired 4 players - Thommo for £25k along with resigning Butler and Iffy, with Ty Gooden thrown in for good measure - for a total of less than a third of Bob's price, and still achieved promotion to the promised land at last.

Only 14 goals in 52 games but one of the coolest finishers I can remember, particularly when slotting home THAT goal, a rare header.
Totally with you on Tommo a very underrated player.Not least it seemed by himself. Still convinced he could have continued at Gillingham longer than he did.
 
Bettwr than they were given credit for:- Big Shipp, Joe Jacques, Colin Greenall, Dave Martin (filth tbh). More recently, Junior Lewis and Steve Banks.
Dave Martin was a dirty player .But seemed a nice bloke off the pitch.I had a mate who loved to watch him above almost anyone of that era.Colin Greenall was class and probably doesn't deserve to be included on that basis. Junior was a interesting one a great non league signing arguably one of the best in that category. Definitely a chalk and cheese player. But given the jump he made he did magnificently his contribution to our promotion and first season should not be underestimated.
 
Bettwr than they were given credit for:- Big Shipp, Joe Jacques, Colin Greenall, Dave Martin (filth tbh). More recently, Junior Lewis and Steve Banks.
All of those but particularly Junior
Much underrated IMO.
Another quite recent player that I thought we looked better as a team when he played was Luke Norris.
 
Dave Martin was a dirty player .But seemed a nice bloke off the pitch.I had a mate who loved to watch him above almost anyone of that era.Colin Greenall was class and probably doesn't deserve to be included on that basis. Junior was a interesting one a great non league signing arguably one of the best in that category. Definitely a chalk and cheese player. But given the jump he made he did magnificently his contribution to our promotion and first season should not be underestimated.
I don't think the players at Orient, when he was there, think much of Dave Martin..allegedly
 
Gotta love Saunders. Suffered due to his versatility imo. Was shifted around the pitch countless times (did he fill in as keeper once? Or am I thinking of Patto?) I’ve got a great photo from POTY do in maybe 1999, both beered up, got his arm round me and both holding a fag and pint. Happy times.

Junior Lewis was also a favourite of mine from that era. I never really understood the hatred some fans had for him. He was tall, gangly, and sometimes looked like he was gonna trip over the ball. But had great vision and a really good passer of the ball. A key part of our promotion that season in my view.

No one mentioning Adam Miller - he really was Marmite but he did try to create things. No where near as good as players mentioned above but I always thought we were more likely to create chances with him playing.

Fully agree with this too. Again, I never really understood the bile directed towards him. I think he probably suffered more for being close to Stimson than anything to do with his actual ability-one of the few technical players we had around that time. I seem to remember him being the only one with the balls to step up and take a penalty in front of the RE in one game. Which considering the abuse he used to get shows his character. Iirc he was playing with painkilling injections towards the end of the season, putting off a hernia operation just to try and save us from the drop.
 
Fully agree with this too. Again, I never really understood the bile directed towards him. I think he probably suffered more for being close to Stimson than anything to do with his actual ability-one of the few technical players we had around that time. I seem to remember him being the only one with the balls to step up and take a penalty in front of the RE in one game. Which considering the abuse he used to get shows his character.

I think words like bile and abuse is putting it a bit strong.

He had some talent but also rubbed a few fans up the wrong way, including me, because he came from non league but still had a bit of "billy big balls" attitude about him.

Not great defensively. I think the penalty you are thinking of may have been to salvage a 4-4 draw in a home game against Aldershot that we had been leading 3-1 if I remember correctly, and I think he may have been partly responsible for one of the goals we conceded, giving the ball away through showboating. That was the sort of thing that wound people up.
 
I think words like bile and abuse is putting it a bit strong.

He had some talent but also rubbed a few fans up the wrong way, including me, because he came from non league but still had a bit of "billy big balls" attitude about him.

Not great defensively. I think the penalty you are thinking of may have been to salvage a 4-4 draw in a home game against Aldershot that we had been leading 3-1 if I remember correctly, and I think he may have been partly responsible for one of the goals we conceded, giving the ball away through showboating. That was the sort of thing that wound people up.

Each to their own GBN, on the occasions I spoke to him I never found him “billy big balls”. He struck me as more of a “Ive been playing non-league for a few seasons, now I’ve got another chance in the league and gonna give it all I’ve got” attitude.

Also I don’t think bile and abuse are too strong. I’m not one of those who think players are above criticism, far from it. I’ve screamed at plenty of our lot over the years I can assure you. But large sections of the crowd would boo his name whilst being read out over the tannoy. That’s plain wrong in my view. I was also at a game when a group of ‘fans’ were cheering as he got substituted. Again, unacceptable. In fact I think some people were pleased he was on the field sometimes, just so they could bellow out the “c” word at the top of their voice.

And the original post was about underrated players. I feel he was vastly underrated.
 
Also I don’t think bile and abuse are too strong. I’m not one of those who think players are above criticism, far from it. I’ve screamed at plenty of our lot over the years I can assure you. But large sections of the crowd would boo his name whilst being read out over the tannoy. That’s plain wrong in my view. I was also at a game when a group of ‘fans’ were cheering as he got substituted. Again, unacceptable. In fact I think some people were pleased he was on the field sometimes, just so they could bellow out the “c” word at the top of their voice.

I never realised it was that bad. In that case, those "fans" should be ashamed of themselves.

I have never booed any of our players or sworn at them. Why would I? Even non triers like JET should be supported when they are on the pitch. I might scream out my "tactical instructions" to them but I want 11 players pulling for the team, not 10.
 
Each to their own GBN, on the occasions I spoke to him I never found him “billy big balls”. He struck me as more of a “Ive been playing non-league for a few seasons, now I’ve got another chance in the league and gonna give it all I’ve got” attitude.

Also I don’t think bile and abuse are too strong. I’m not one of those who think players are above criticism, far from it. I’ve screamed at plenty of our lot over the years I can assure you. But large sections of the crowd would boo his name whilst being read out over the tannoy. That’s plain wrong in my view. I was also at a game when a group of ‘fans’ were cheering as he got substituted. Again, unacceptable. In fact I think some people were pleased he was on the field sometimes, just so they could bellow out the “c” word at the top of their voice.

And the original post was about underrated players. I feel he was vastly underrated.
I agree with you about Miller. When my youngest lad was a nipper, he was never the greatest football fan btw, he only got excited by 2 players ; Hess and Miller.
 
Permit me to cast another vote for Bill Brown. A very talented No9 in the days when a physical presence was was sometimes preferred by the fans, than a skilled dribbler of the ball. Loved watching you play Bill.
 
Sure it was him I saw back in 2007/08 in the 0-0 away against Orient. I was with a few Orient supporters and all off agreed he was man of the match and was outstanding. Pity he couldn't do it every week.
 
The one thing that Adam Miller could never be accused of is going hiding during games, however shit he or the team might have been playing, he always attempted to make things happen and despite the groans and boos continued to give 100% to try things.

No player in a GFC shirt should EVER be booed before a game when the team sheets are read out or cheered when subbed IMO. That is no way to get the best out of any player. Sadly some of our more moronic crowd think its productive.
 
I seem to recall he retired not long after leaving us. Citing how football had been ruined for him. Can't remember if he said it explicitly or only implied it but I think his treatment at Gills had a big part to play in it. Didn't he fall out with Stimson in the end too?