Players who never made it but.........

[3spirit]

11 hours ago, sdelane said:

As said by Ted in earlier post Phil Beale I believe was the first ex professional to join us centre back from Spurs who just turned up for the money I was very disappointed with him. Took a good 10 years from the 1970s for these ex pros to realise that they had to work hard to play and get into a non league team. Tommy Langley ex Chelsea was superb player for us to see to see him play against ex Slough and Chelsea player Micky Droy in the Kingstonian game at Wexham Park in the battle for promotion points was great. We won the game and you could see the pleasure on Tommy.s face after the game it meant a lot to him to not only win but against his old pal to.

Was disappointed with Mark Hawthorne too. played for a lot of pro clubs but another top player who joined us with injury problems. Swapping Roger Connell for Kieram Summers was a bad move to.

I thought Mark Hawthorne was class, was not disappointed by him at all.

Tommy Langley was a great signing for Slough but he did make me laugh at the time,as he often bricked it if he was up against a strong centre half. That said he still got his fair share of goals and quite a few good ones. Remember that Kingstonian game. Any crowd over a 2,000 in Wexham Park gave that place such a special atmosphere. As a ground I liked Wexham Park, as far as stadiums go it was not a palace but certainly had something about it. 

Remember Phil Beal at Spurs but didn't realise he had played for the Rebels.

[sdelaney]

52 minutes ago, 3spirit said:

I thought Mark Hawthorne was class, was not disappointed by him at all.

Tommy Langley was a great signing for Slough but he did make me laugh at the time,as he often bricked it if he was up against a strong centre half. That said he still got his fair share of goals and quite a few good ones. Remember that Kingstonian game. Any crowd over a 2,000 in Wexham Park gave that place such a special atmosphere. As a ground I liked Wexham Park, as far as stadiums go it was not a palace but certainly had something about it. 

Remember Phil Beal at Spurs but didn't realise he had played for the Rebels.

3Spirit  I knew your opinion of Mark Hawthorne would be different to mine. All about supporters having different views.

[3spirit]

12 minutes ago, sdelane said:

3Spirit  I knew your opinion of Mark Hawthorne would be different to mine. All about supporters having different views.

Of course. Each to their own.

It's just I'm right on this and you're wrong ! Only joking, ha ha! 

[Reading Rebel]

I thought Mark Hawthorne did ok but nothing out of the ordinary.

[3spirit]

2 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

I thought Mark Hawthorne did ok but nothing out of the ordinary.

He had a cracking shot which got under utilised. I thought he did a lot of work in midfield, the sort of that goes unnoticed ie tracking players when not in possession of the ball and making hard yards back and forth. Graham Roberts rated Mark Hawthorne and he's no one's fool when it comes to finding players ie Micky Engwell, AJ Hannigan - two other of his players that impressed me at the time.

[Radders]

Dave rainford era who I thought was superb but others thought was ?.

[Reading Rebel]

11 minutes ago, Radders said:

Dave rainford era who I thought was superb but others thought was ?.

Rainford went on to captain Dagenham into the football league so certainly proved some of his doubters wrong.

[3spirit]

9 minutes ago, Radders said:

Dave rainford era who I thought was superb but others thought was ?.

Funny that, Radders, as Hawthorne and Rainford were regular starters in centre midfield together.

I preferred Mark Hawthorne.  Dave Rainford used to frustrate me as he was a weak tackler and was inconsistent in form. When at his best he looked more than useful but I was gobsmacked when he got scouted to play higher up. By all accounts he excelled when he played full time. Just goes to show I'm fallible !  ?

[Matt]

3 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Rainford went on to captain Dagenham into the football league so certainly proved some of his doubters wrong.

Even more impressive was that he did that whilst still remaining a part time footballer, the only one in the Football League at the time as I recall.