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Ex-Saints Watch


supersonic
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Today I had the pleasure of watching Basingstoke v Hayes & Yeading and I noticed 2 ex-Saints were on show; Basingstoke had ex-Academy player Jordace Holder-Spooner up front, whilst H&Y had Pele playing CB. Just thought I'd give a give mention as to how they are doing now.

 

Holder-Spooner scored the first (in a dramatic 2-2 draw in which H&Y scored 2 goals in 10 minutes of injury time) and looked quite good. He's quick, very quick, but his attitude and off the ball play need improving. There's no reason why he can't go on and play league football if he puts his mind to it.

 

Pele, on the other hand, had a nightmare. He must be about 35 now and it showed. He was given a torrid time by the Basingstoke strikers, he's put on weight too. The bloke next to me seemed very surprised that he'd played at such a high level before.

 

The Blue Square South league has quite a few ex-Saints (and pro's playing) and it's always interesting to see how they are doing now

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It's interesting to see that quite a few of our youngsters (mainly from the Dutch era) are now plying their trade in the non-Leagues, will be intriguing to see whether any of them build themselves up to league football again in the next couple of years. For example, Jake Thomson is at Newport, Callum McNish is at Braintree & Jamie White is at Salisbury.

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It's interesting to see that quite a few of our youngsters (mainly from the Dutch era) are now plying their trade in the non-Leagues, will be intriguing to see whether any of them build themselves up to league football again in the next couple of years. For example, Jake Thomson is at Newport, Callum McNish is at Braintree & Jamie White is at Salisbury.

 

McNish has now moved to Eastleigh on a months loan - he played yesterday

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Surprised at how far Pele dropped after leaving us. Amazingly we made a profit on him with WBA paying £1m, but they didn't keep him for long.

 

I didn't think he was awful for us, but that penalty in the PO S/F will live long in my memory.

 

But as a positive, his performance in the middle of the park at Elland Road will also live long in the memory. He was majestic that day.

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I think Pele has had other clubs, based on todays performance, I think this will be his last season playing.

 

As has been said above, quite a few youngsters are playing at a good non-league standard. Jamie White scored 50+ league goals for Winchester City last year.

 

Holder-Spooner was at Eastleigh last season but fell out with the management and got picked up by Basingstoke, he has 2 goals in last 3 games

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Sky Sports understands Aston Villa have made a bid for Charlton Athletic midfielder Dale Stephens

 

What is going on at Villa??

 

Weird one, that.

 

He was OK for us, but nothing more.

 

Didn't stand out in League One, so unless he's improved considerably in a short space of time, the Premier League will be too much for him.

 

Surely this one isn't true, is it!?

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when you have a lot to recall....I' m a 50 year fan btw, there can be a lot of players to remember.

 

It does seem that some people like to gloat /or complain about someone we transferred, gave away or ditched..only for them to get success later on. There are several categories here.

 

The youth players who don't make it...(and there have been lots of those), those who are " late-developers " and we lose patience with / or can't afford to keep, and those who we lose " due to circumstances beyond our control ".

 

As examples: I will quote a few. Terry Spinner. One of the most outstanding schoolboy talent the Saints ever had. Played CF and in one season scored 150 goals at schoolboy level. Later England U16 side and scored a hat-trick in a game... IN Germany.... before a crowd of 80,000 people. Signed as apprentice for Saints in 1969. Scored more than 50 goals for Reserves and had his " one-chance " when he made his debut in 1973 (aged 20) .when our strike force was normally Paine, Channon, Davies, Stokes or Gilchrist. Needless to say he had little future at SFC.

Moving to a poor Walsall side he dropped out of pro-football after a year and was never heard of again.

 

When the manager is 6' 6" tall... ( as was Lawrie McMenemy).. everyone must look short.....but for diminutive Dennis Wise ...and Kevin Phillips their apprentice careers were cut short because they were deemed TOO short. Mmm ..wonder what ever happened to them !! :cry: (don't talk about them Lawrie).

 

Others just "drift away ...like Andy Townsend. A promising talent who we signed (aged 21) from Weymouth. A slightly better than average midfielder who played 80 odd games 1985-88 , but was unfortunate enough to have his Saints career fall between the time of Lawrie Mac .and Chris Nicholl ..and broke his leg in the meantime. By the time he was back fit, there were other more regular players and so AL was sold to Norwich for a handsome fee of 300K in 1988. In retrospect not the best deal we ever made. He was very successful at Norwich ..who later sold him for £1 million to Chelsea, where his career blossomed even more, and he played for Republic of Ireland more than 50 times (!) ouch !

 

I don't need to highlight further the career of the former Newcastle schoolboy goalie, who was sacked and joined Saints as an apprentice ..and 5 years later was sold to Blackburn for over £3 million!

A good deal, that one. Only of you don't recall that he later moved back to his home city ( Newcastle ) for £16 million....in addition to gaining a huge number of caps as England CF. (Alan Shearer)

 

One who did stay ..and took 5 years to make his debut was Chris Baird. Signed as 16 y.o. apprentice, he was (fortunate enough) to be injured when we began a managerial carousel in 2000 .and was still on the books when Gordon Strachan picked him to play in the 2003 Cup final side, where he was one of the best Saints players.

It still took a couple more years in the Reserves, and another manager and an injury crisis for him to finally get a regular place in the later Prem. sides 2004/5.

He later moved to Fulham (for a surprising £3 million) but where he has been a regular ever since and a stalwart defender in the N.I. side for many years.

 

Hey ho ...you can't win em all.

Edited by david in sweden
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I can remember watching Jake Thomson as a youngster thinking he'd be a first team player for us pretty quickly. Amazing how he tumbled through the leagues via so many different clubs.

 

I also remember a lot of hype about Jamie Hatch, though I can't recall seeing him play myself. I also saw Matt Paterson have a pretty average game against Millwall U18s at Staplewood, right up until he scored a hat-trick.

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Anyone know what became of a little bloke called lee powell who got a few games under branfoot?

 

Ha ha, I remember him,, blonde and absolutely tiny!

 

Wiki says he went to Hamilton Academicals and then Yeovil. No info on the amount of games/goals though.

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Ha ha, I remember him,, blonde and absolutely tiny!

 

Wiki says he went to Hamilton Academicals and then Yeovil. No info on the amount of games/goals though.

 

Cheers Kraken

Also anyone remember the lad with a drug problem during bally's time as manager? bartlett or something, remember being impressed with him v man u only for him to vanish off the face of the earth not long after.

here's one not many will be familiar with ..steve roast, he's a coach in the far north of sweden now

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I can remember watching Jake Thomson as a youngster thinking he'd be a first team player for us pretty quickly. Amazing how he tumbled through the leagues via so many different clubs.

 

I also remember a lot of hype about Jamie Hatch, though I can't recall seeing him play myself. I also saw Matt Paterson have a pretty average game against Millwall U18s at Staplewood, right up until he scored a hat-trick.

 

Actually Hatch played at right back like Jake Thomson did, lots of good solid firm passing, very nippy but probably a little lightweight. Matt Paterson to me never looked like he had the sharpness to succeed, everything was at one pace. Decent enough finisher though.

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Anyone know what became of a little bloke called lee powell who got a few games under branfoot?

 

I played against him in 6th Form football in Newport (his dad was an ex-Newport County pro), he just ran up and down the wing for his school with the ball until he'd committed the entire defence and then either crossed it to the open striker or ran in and scored. I think they beat us by about 10 goals and he was involved in all of them. Strangely never put in a token appearance for Newport County to my knowledge. He was in the Admiral shirt team picture with Shearer in 1991/2 IIRC.

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Sky Sports understands Aston Villa have made a bid for Charlton Athletic midfielder Dale Stephens

 

What is going on at Villa??

 

Seems like it was legit

 

Sky Sports understands Aston Villa have agreed a fee for Joe Bennett, but Charlton have rejected their offer for Dale Stephens.

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