Programme article/best xi

[Reading Rebel]

3 hours ago, 3spirit said:

There's a few players I'd forgotten about and one of them has been around my house ! ha ha!

From Gary's list, there's four players who when in their prime would have to be included somewhere in my squad, that would be Alan Inns, Brad Watkins, Adrian Sear and Leigh Rumbold. 

Alan Inns and Adrian Sear in their prime would definitely have been in my starting 11 but unfortunately both came to us in the latter stages of their careers.

Brad Wadkins would not replace either Charlie Mpi or Matty Stevens.

[Stuntman Mark]

Ryan Scott's 45 minutes against Ardley Utd in the FA was unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. 

[RebelVilla]

On 23/01/2019 at 19:56, Reading Rebel said:

Mark Scott

Smart  Woozley  Foulser Stonehouse

Jake Parsons  McClurg  Rumbold  Dobson

Mpi  Stevens

Everyone has their own opinion, however I do find it difficult to believe that you would chose Charlie Mpi over either Danny Burnell or Ed Smith, maybe Johnnie Dyer as well.

[3spirit]

5 hours ago, RebelVilla said:

Everyone has their own opinion, however I do find it difficult to believe that you would chose Charlie Mpi over either Danny Burnell or Ed Smith, maybe Johnnie Dyer as well.

Rebel Villa, I chose Charlie Mpi,too. I paired him with Charlie Strutton up front.  I don't see how that is hard to believe. Charlie Strutton was an instinctive goal getter who was strong and very direct. He went about his business quietly and got on with the game. No getting involved in stupid arguments or moaning at referees. Had it not been for injury, he would have played a lot more professional games. 

As for Charlie Mpi, he had pace to burn, could head a ball well and was a livewire and could turn a game on his own. He made things happen. He was also a team man and had good character. Willing to put himself out for the team. Was cronically under used by Steve Bateman in the first stint at the club and yet left and played at a higher level with Wealdstone and was rated there. Brought back by Bakes and Unders and did a very good job for Slough and them, when paired with Ed Smith. He proved his worth but unfortunately for our team his full time job took him out the country. At the time it was a big loss.

I can see that Danny Burnell, Ed Smith and Johnny Dyer were prolific goal scorers and each of them were talented footballers in their own right but for me Burnell was an out and out number 9 and he scored goals for fun but his character wasn't great for team spirit, as he was always moaning at the referee or arguing with team mates. I thought Johnny Dyer and Ed Smith were technically better footballers than Danny Burnell,as they seemed sharper thinkers and often brought other players into the game and hence got more assists. However, I think Danny Burnell had the edge on Johnny Dyer as a goal poacher but I think Ed Smith was the best footballer out of all of them. The problem with Ed was he had those nutty unhinged moments in the game, when he would do something wild, which often led to him getting embroiled in trouble with the officials.

So hope that explains it better.

[Reading Rebel]

8 hours ago, RebelVilla said:

Everyone has their own opinion, however I do find it difficult to believe that you would chose Charlie Mpi over either Danny Burnell or Ed Smith, maybe Johnnie Dyer as well.

I chose Charlie Mpi over the others not only for his all round footballing ability i.e. pace, holding the ball up, heading and goals but also for his character.  

[Curtis]

There’s an enormous difference between a striker being able to score goals at Step 4 and Step 3, and being able to do so over a few games or over a longer period.

And I think we had two strikers at Step 3 (current strikers excluded) that were a league goal every two games, Ed Smith & Lee Barney.

[RebelVilla]

No question of Charlie's pace and I'm sure that he was easy the manage compared to some other 'characters' we have had over the years, but I considered that he did not have a good enough goal scoring ratio to games played and conversion of shots to goals to be in my team.

We all see thing differently and have differing opinions however one view that we all hopefully have in common is that we look forward to 3 points on Tuesday evening.

 

[SloughFlyer]

The thing with Charlie Mpi for me was that it wasn't just the goals he scored, but the space he created with defenders concentrating on him for other players. He wouldn't be one of my top 2 strikers (Matty Stevens and Ed Smith) but can certainly see why others have him in there.

[Irishadrian]

He was inconsistent in his time with us although as others have said he did impose himself and free up other team mates He played a total of 55 games for us. In the first 23 he scored  1 goal in the next 23 he scored 13 goals and in the last 9 just 1 Those 2 goals in 32 games are the reason he wouldn't be in my pick although I always did enjoy watching his performances

[3spirit]

20 hours ago, Irishadrian said:

He was inconsistent in his time with us although as others have said he did impose himself and free up other team mates He played a total of 55 games for us. In the first 23 he scored  1 goal in the next 23 he scored 13 goals and in the last 9 just 1 Those 2 goals in 32 games are the reason he wouldn't be in my pick although I always did enjoy watching his performances

You need to put it into context, and to take into account that Steve Bateman picked him mainly as a sub, so his game time was limited for the first 23 games. Steve also favoured Danny Burnell and Sean Sonner, nothing wrong in that but it has to be said, he didn't go out his way to make Charlie believe he was well thought of.

Bakes and Unders got more out of Charlie Mpi and he became an integral part of their team, before he left to go abroad.

He came to Slough, in the always difficult second season in a new division, when our side was being overhauled from the previous season's lot, in an effort to take us up the table. That season was when we had pinned a lot of hopes on Gary McDonald being our new Dave Woozley. Unfortunately, that plan didn't pan out and our first 10 games proved to be very hard going. 

Charlie Mpi arrived around the time Gary McDonald was exiting, so he wasn't coming into a settled team.This particular season we had numerous players injured and we had a big turnover of personnel. We made some good signings but we also had a lot of duds. For Charlie Mpi, he had Lewis Putman, Ed Smith, Charlie Strutton, Jake Parsons, Scott Harris and Lee Barney as front partners in any given game and he also did a role as a lone striker in a couple of games.  Ed Smith tore his hamstring in one of Charlie's first games, which ruled him out for awhile. Lewis Putman had a crisis of confidence playing up front and never looked comfortable as a forward for Slough, so eventually ended up on the left wing. Scott Harris try as he might, never looked a perfect foil for Charlie to play alongside.

Then Charlie Strutton arrived on loan from Braintree, who had been struggling with injury and needed games to sharpen up. Understandably it took several games for him to get going but when he did, he and Mpi formed a great partnership and started banging in the goals, and our results improved. Ed Smith then returned to the team after his lay off and he,too, started to find the net again. We then had four useful strikers in the squad.  Not sure whether Charlie Strutton was recalled back to Braintree after two months with Slough or he succumbed to his old injury, or it was a combination of both but he had left us by the start of January, of that season.

Lee Barney arrived late January. Around this time Charlie Mpi's job was get more demanding of him, so up to the end of March I think there were games he started to miss, so I don't believe that his input to our team, or of his goal ratio, or those who prospered playing alongside him, are bad returns from him as a player at all.

Just a question of interpretation of what role you want your striker to play. I understand fully those that choose Ed Smith as he was a clever footballer and scored goals for fun and is now a Slough legend . That's why I had him on my subs bench.

If it had been players under Steve Bateman's era I would have chosen Ed Smith up front but under Bakes and Unders I thought he played them up at times and became a liability in his final season at the club.  For me they parted ways at the right time.

Edited January 28, 2019 by 3spirit

[Mark44]

I vaguely remember, and i may have dreamt this, but Charlie Strutton's loan ended and he didn't turn up back at Braintree despite being under contract.....I believe they eventually released him from his contract but were not obliged to pay as he had essentially broken the terms of it by not showing up for work

[Reading Rebel]

TBH, the only thing I remember about Charlie Strutton was that he was a player that always seemed to be struggling to get fit.

Because of that I don't think he ever got back to the player he once was.

His tally of 6 goals in 16 games probably probably sums up his short loan spell at Slough.

Edited January 29, 2019 by Reading Rebel

[rebelade]

Regarding Ed Smith under Bakes and Unders, he played 101 games and scored 60 goals, therefore 2/3 of his games were under current management. 

[3spirit]

3 hours ago, rebelade said:

Regarding Ed Smith under Bakes and Unders, he played 101 games and scored 60 goals, therefore 2/3 of his games were under current management. 

I stand corrected, Rebel Ade. Never been one for statistics but that is a brilliant ratio of goals per games.  From memory, I thought Ed was outstanding in his first season working with Bakes and Unders, and I think he was voted player of the season. Second season I think he had injury problems but still delivered goals in what was a higher division. Third season he seemed to go off the rails a bit and seemed [rumour has it] that he was disruptive on and off the pitch.

 

Edited January 29, 2019 by 3spirit

[3spirit]

6 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

TBH, the only thing I remember about Charlie Strutton was that he was a player that always seemed to be struggling to get fit.

Because of that I don't think he ever got back to the player he once was.

His tally of 6 goals in 16 games probably probably sums up his short loan spell at Slough.

I saw Charlie Strutton playing for Chalfont St Peter quite a few times and always rated him.Wasn't surprised when he got picked up to play professionally. Found out later he was mates with my nephew, so got to know him slightly. He's a nice lad, so that may favour him a bit.

Ed Smith's record playing for Slough is fantastic and very few players come close to it. For me Ed Smith's all round game is better than Charlie Strutton's but what Charlie had before his bad injury, was the ability to score goals from everywhere. Would strike the ball well and was ultra direct. Strong and could hold off a player. He would turn a player and get a shot away quick. No pussy footing about with the ball or trying to take on players. Shoot at all costs. To me that is my ideal number 9/centre forward.

Ed Smith, I view more as a number 10.

[Reading Rebel]

8 hours ago, 3spirit said:

I saw Charlie Strutton playing for Chalfont St Peter quite a few times and always rated him.Wasn't surprised when he got picked up to play professionally. Found out later he was mates with my nephew, so got to know him slightly. He's a nice lad, so that may favour him a bit.

Ed Smith's record playing for Slough is fantastic and very few players come close to it. For me Ed Smith's all round game is better than Charlie Strutton's but what Charlie had before his bad injury, was the ability to score goals from everywhere. Would strike the ball well and was ultra direct. Strong and could hold off a player. He would turn a player and get a shot away quick. No pussy footing about with the ball or trying to take on players. Shoot at all costs. To me that is my ideal number 9/centre forward.

Ed Smith, I view more as a number 10.

On a games to goals ratio Ed Smith is certainly our best goalscorer of the modern era and as a rough guess is probably somewhere around the top 5 of all time.

[Irishadrian]

He's 10th on our all time list but the only modern one  Best goals to appearances ratio is the man in 9th place Arthur Redford 98 games 96 goals All time leader Ted Norris 343 goals is 120 ahead of number 2'