While looking at the number of appearances our first eleven had in the promotion season(for another thread), I was struck by how fortunate we were with injuries. Below are the league appearances(appearances in all competitions) for our first XI in the 2007/08 season: Myhill 46(49) Ricketts 47(56) Turner 47(51) Brown 44(47) Dawson 32(34) Garcia 41(44) Ash 45(48) Marney 42(45) Hughes 38(39) Deano 40(42) Campbell 38(39) Apart from Dawson being injured for a while, almost all the first XI stayed fit for the whole season, though Ricketts must have been a bit knackered by the end of it.
How did Ricketts play 9 games that weren't in the league? Playoffs must be counted in the league because he and Turner each got 47 which is obviously more than the total league games excluding the playoffs. In the cups we only played 4 games i think, so where the hell does Ricketts' 56 games come from?
That's very interesting reading and I can't see us having that sort of consistency for a while. Do these numbers include sub appearances? How many did 'squad players' like Barmby and Folan therefore make?
Barmby made 18 League appearances, 19 overall. He did spend a large chunk of the season injured, tbf.
There all appearances, it's a bit too time consuming to check them all for start/sub appearances. Barmby 18(19) Folan 34(36) He's on the same as Dawson, but doesn't make the first eleven due them being mainly sub appearances. Okocha 18 France 13(14) Pedersen 21(22) ***an 11 Featherstone 6(9) Livermore 19(23) Walton 10 Which was roughly 10 too many, as he was ****y tosspot of a scum ****.
Q. What kind of manager would leave out their best defender for the first game of the season? A. One that would go on to get declined for the Hartlepool managers job. Seems fair enough to me
I don't remember Featherstone making that many appearances for us? He appeared in the league cup game against Chelsea, he must've popped up in the cup!
Palace, Watford, Barnsley, Sheff Utd, DQPR and Norwich in the league. Crewe, Wigan and Chelsea in cup games.
Jesus. If he hadn't lived off an apparent diet of 10 XL Bacon Double Cheeseburgers a day, he might have been able to make more of an impression.
He was one of those who always looked competent, without ever looking impressive, other than the odd reserve game, where he was often a couple of years older than everyone else on the pitch.
Recall Turner was one of only 2-3 players to play EVERY PL match of the 2008/09 season. Think Kaboul of Pompey was another? it was a Pompey defender..
