Whilst we all love him, I have to say that , after watching the extended highlights of the game, I can see why he went so long without scoring, as his finishing on saturday was abysmal - he had at least 4 attempts one-on-one that he put straight at their goalie each time - we cant afford that in Champs and makes me wonder if he is good enough for next season for us.
To be fair he did work very hard to get himself in those positions, and you have to give some credit to their goalie. I can't see that we could afford to buy anyone better.
I back him for the championship next season- he explains in AH's post about trying to second guess the keepers recently. I think now he has that one, the goals will come again. We will need to add another forward to him, kermo and Haynes (I've decided Clarke will go).
Top Decision We can't forget his 14 goals between August and Decmebr but we also can't forget his incredibly uninspiring form in that league before. That said I have faith.
A simple question deserves a simple answer… For me it's an emphatic YES...!! There’s not a centre forward on this planet who won’t go through a lean spell at some point in their career. However, the mark of a quality forward is a refusal to hide, and a willingness to continue to putting themselves in positions to hit the back of the net. Not once has BWP hidden or shyed away from his duties...!! Imo BWP is as natural a goalscorer as we’ve ever had at the club. Formulating a negative opinion of his ability to make the step up based solely on his last dozen or so games is a little naïve and very unfair. After all, there were very few who had any doubt about his worth at the start of the season…!! I am convinced he’ll have a productive end of season to quash the doubters.
Ahhh I see where this is going... Reverse Phycology (sorry could never spell it) We say Powell isnt good enough after Stevenage and we go on a run which sees us only lose one more game, we say BWP isnt good enough this time, maybe just maybe ;-) TBH I dont think some fans are good enough for the higher leagues, we need to learn to be patient when playing the smaller sides like Bury and Rochdale, just because we've not scored after 25mins or conceded after 50mins does not mean the ref will blow for full-time straight away... C'mon the booing helps the opposition as it shows they're doing a good job
Yes he is!...Those goals at the beginning of the season gave us a great platform..Watch out Chesterfield!
I'm undecided on him in the championship tbh. He's played there before and never really set it alight, I guess well have to just wait and see.
The thing with BWP is before September 2010 he had hardley scored a goal in his life! People seem to forget that, he had a purple patch before he signed for us and his first year has been very productive, even if you take his 13 game drought. He has had some experiance in the Championship and has really struggled to be fair. Am I expecting him to get 20+ goals in the championship? No but I never thought Grant Holt would score ten in the prem either!!! Neither did the Forest manager that sold him for 70k either.
Throughout his barren run, he was trying too hard - chasing players down, running all over the place trying to get the ball and thus tiring himself out. An in-form BWP spends most of his time loitering around, and when he see's a weakness in the opposition defense he pounces. He has a knack of ending up in the right place at the right time and its far from 'luck'. By trying too hard (post-November), he's been in the 'wrong places' to receive the ball. After scoring on Saturday, we saw a big-part of the (pre-November) BWP return - he was pouncing on every mistake, picking up every flick-on and ending up 1on1 with the keeper. Sadly, he still lacked the confidence to slide the ball into the bottom corner as is his custom. The above confirms to me, that I believe he is more than capable of picking up his pre-November form in League One. As for The Championship, I'm unsure - he never set the world alight in The Championship, in fact he did quite the opposite - I used to love playing Southampton when he was on the pitch because he never ever seemed to score - always managed to hoof the ball into row z with every chance. However, he was brilliant in the pre-season game against Millwall, and has played decent in all other friendly/cup games against higher opposition, so perhaps he has developed enough as a player to do well in The Championship now.
I'd say he will be a very good asset next year if we are in the Championship, simply because we haven't had a 'natural goal scorer' for YEARS. Just think how many strikers we have had in the last 4ish years, BWP is probably the best we've had at just snatching a goal every other game and more. I'd be very worried if we didn't have him next year because we've proved how hard it is to find a decent goal scorer in recent years and he is most definitely good enough.
Chased all over the place for lost causes for most of the time,because thats what the crowd were demanding....Patience needed
Is that me? .......... Look I've had FLU! NOT A COLD BUT FLU in fact still not over it! OK getting FLU in L1 is not good but I put it down to coming back too early from a little sniffle, I did the pre-match warm up fine (curry pie and tea) but obviously wasn't ready for a full 90 mins.
Remember, when at soton he was mostly played on the wings and their strikers where blackstock, Leon best (I think), mcgoldrick, stern John and saganowski (sp). Think it was towards the end of their relegation season he got a chance up top.
Good point superchrissy. He is playing well in a team where we play him in a position to which he aspires and have given him the support he needs. CP mentioned in his BBC interview that strikers play a confidence game and that is what we give to BWP that he may not have had at the Saints. It seems to pay off and even if he hadn't scored on Saturday, his movement and positional play was much better than i have seen over the last few weeks. Lets hope that saturday was the catalyst he needed. we may well see after tonight and Saturday.
There is no doubt he is good enough at League One level, and possibly as a back-up player in the Championship. But I would not feel confident having him as our main goalscoring threat next season (if we go up, I should add). I like the guy, his movement and anticipation are normally great - but he is no Holt or Lambert.
