A chance to have a look at Michael Smith playing for Wimbledon against Coventry in the FA Cup on TV. They should have kicked of by now but it is delayed. Other old boys playing are Leon Clarke, Harry Pell, and Barry Fuller, with Ross Worner on the bench. And is the "Weston" also on the bench Myles Weston?
A shame as Ross Warner was supposed to start yet has been held up in traffic Its not our Myles Weston as he plays for Gillingham
Interesting that Hollands has had his permission withdrawn to play in the Cup. Stephens on his way out?
I think he could well be come January but I don't see the connection with this. I always liked Hollands but I am now resigned to the fact that he will never be a first pick for Charlton in the Championship. CP has already preferred Gower and Hughes to him and I would hope that if Stephens goes we will find someone better than Hollands to replace him. Seems a dirty trick to play on Gillingham at such short notice so I think there may be another reason. How about Gillingham said they wanted to rest him and save him for league games, and Charlton didn't want him cup-tied just for the sake of a last five minutes cameo? Or maybe Gillingham and Charlton have fallen out over Hollands' buying price so the Addicks are being deliberately awkward.
As I posted on another thread somewhere, he bossed the midfield in the game vs. Cheltenham and looked devastated when they lost in the last minute of stoppage time. Commanding performance.
It could be that the management thought that loans in would be concluded this week, I was told last Saturday that the loan for a striker had been agreed (it obviously hadn't!). The Good Doctor perhaps now feels that he doesn't want his players cup tied just in case.
I still don't understand why Michael Smith was loaned out when we are so short of strikers. I am sure he could have done a job for us. He couldn't have done any worse than Sordell. I have also heard that we are trying to bring in a new striker from Spurs, either Obika or Kane but the sticking point is that Spurs want us to pay the whole salary and we only want to pay a part.
Smith has been with us for ages now. This is his make-or-break season, and it wouldn't have done any harm to use him. You won't get many goals from him, but you will get 90 minutes of hard work. Come to think of it, which of our strikers will you get many goals from? I'm also disappointed that Pigott is completely out of the picture. After he came in against Oxford The Doctor said a lot of nice things about his game. Unless his confidence has gone those aspects of his game won't have changed. With Kermit's injury problems and Sordell's football problems, it's a snub to our own reserves not to at least get on the bench.
I have seen a couple of games that Pigott has played recently and he doesn't seem the same player as he was last season. I think the Millwall game has affected his confidence. This is a danger of throwing in the youngsters too early.
Sorry to hear that. He was good against Oxford, but Millwall was probably the wrong game to throw him in. It won't have helped him if he reads the internet forums either. You and I know there is potentially a very good player in there, and I hope The Doctor is working on his confidence.