impact from the bench...

[david in sweden]

seems to be a new Adkins phrase at SMS.

 

of course older fans will recall names likes Steve Moran, Tony Funnell, MLT, Nicky Banger, Marian Pahars, Jo Tessem

who all seemed to make a real impact by scoring goals when they came off the bench. I even recall that Bradley Wright-Phillips seemed to score more goals when he came off the bench than when he started a 90 min.game but this season we are setting yet another record. Not enough that our (to date)34 League and League Cup goals have been scored by ..12 different players.. and 7 of those goals have come from on-coming subs.

 

I didn't believe it myself until I looked back, but here they are;

Forte v. Torquay LC

Lambert v. Swindon LC

Chaplow v. Birmingham

Lallana v. Preston LC

Schneiderlin v. Burnley

De Ridder v. Cardiff

Holmes v. Watford

 

At last we have bench players capable of changing a game when the right player is put on..

 

... yet another well done Nigel !

[Dimond Geezer]

Chappers could have had a couple today also.

[captain sensible]

gerry o'brien.......buster crabbe..........

[COMEONYOUREDS]

Great to see holmes score today, could be a useful player for us if he can stay fit, which he probably won't

[sidthesquid]

A substitute has scored in each of the last 5 games (and a different player each time) - surely some sort of record

[david in sweden]

A substitute has scored in each of the last 5 games (and a different player each time) - surely some sort of record

 

 

yes I had the same thought whilst writing the opening text #1

[Golden Balls]

Shame the bench has been cut to 5 this year. We will miss out on bringing youngsters on in games like yesterday. I wonder where Barnard will fit in when he's 'fit'

[david in sweden]

that is still a decision out of our hands...

[david in sweden]

gerry o'brien.......buster crabbe..........

 

i recall both players, but unfortunately..IN THAT NUMBER doesn't have the same facts as you.

Crabbe played a few sub.games . but never scored (not at first team level anyway.) SORRY !

 

Likewise GERRY O'Brien scored a handful of goals in his short career but never as as sub. Sadly he never lived up to the reputation of his earlier namesake GEORGE (1959-1965) who netted 180 times in 5 years in the old Div.2 days.

 

Subs. first introduced after the 1966 World Cup, were initially only ONE extra player and only allowed to be used in case of

serious injury. Later as a tactical move and after that it was increased to 3, although you could only use ONE of the three.

 

It seems that (unlike the headline of this thread,) that subs.didn't seem to affect games much in the beginning, not for Saints at least. The first sub. player to score after being brought on was Martin Chivers in April 1967, and then later Mick Channon in Aug 1969. By then the title " super sub " had been specifically applied two teenagers; Liverpools David Fairclough who got a goal or two regularly when coming on, and a precocious 16 year old for Birmingham named... Trevor Francis.

 

Our own "super subs." began with the appearance of Tony Funnell who came on in a game in March 1978 and won the game with TWO goals. Then teenager Steve Moran started his goal-scoring career in the early 1980's from the bench, as did David Puckett and George Lawrence amongst others. It was only the emergence of Matt Le Tissier that began the theory that an oncomng sub. might actually change the game, which he scored twice when we beat Man.Utd 4-1 in the League Cup tie at the Dell in Nov. 1986? (the (then) Man Utd manager Ron Atkinson was sacked two days later).

 

In 1992, young Nicky Banger came on in THREE successive League games and scored each time, but sadly never made a regular first team spot afterwards.

 

Le Tissier has, during his periods of exile on the bench, come on and scored at least a dozen times in his career, and later signings like Egil Östenstad and Marian Pahars did also... along with the much under-rated Jo Tessem who also scored a few when coming on as sub. and won us quite a few valuable points in the process.

 

This season we seem to have set a high standard with 7 sub.goals already by the end of September.

How many more will we see score before seasons end, when only coming on... I wonder ?

Certainly Lee Holmes goal was one of the quickest sub. scorers we've ever seen at SFC.

 

 

SOURCE : (again ) thanks to... IN THAT NUMBER

Edited 3 October, 2011 by david in sweden

[West End Saint]

I like the way Adkins is keeping the likes of Morgan & chappers involved they are coming on in every game & making a contribution these days it is squad game & you need all the members of the squad motivated & involved nice work NA

[david in sweden]

INDEED !

..gone are the days when subs. were only used in the direst emergencies to keep the same numbers of players on each side.

 

Nigel's " problem "..a very nice one..is to have (at least)..16 players available to compete for the 11 starting places every game ... AND to have a group of hungry youngsters pushing them all for places on the bench.