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Best Saints player in the air


Roger

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Ron Davies was as good in the air,as Terry Paine was crossing the ball.Says it all really,I doubt whether any Saints fan,who saw Ron Davies play,has ever or will ever see a better header of the ball.

 

Davies was the best in the world at that time and in the forty years since I've never seen anybody that even came close. Nobody playing currently could touch him.

Edited by derry
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Watching yesterday how we could have done with jaidi. For me he pips mark wright and Neil ruddock as the best since 86.

 

No doubt someone will say Ron Davies[/quote]

 

well there's three of us said it already...what did you expect. Did you ever see him play ?.......otherwise you wouldn't have asked the question....

 

I'll make it four...Roger will have to make another voodoo doll to stick pins in because I didn't say Lambert. Best header of the ball I have ever seen by country mile

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Kenwyne against Jaidi would have been good to watch. Joe Jordan up against Michael Svensson also.

 

Neither would of coped against John McGrath.

Jaidi is such a miss for us he was my type of centre half after years of namby pamby ones

we finally got someone who had that zone that you entered at your own risk.

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Ron Davies was as good in the air,as Terry Paine was crossing the ball.Says it all really,I doubt whether any Saints fan,who saw Ron Davies play,has ever or will ever see a better header of the ball.

Totally agree, I've never seen a better header of the ball of any club, or country in the past 45 years.

What does surprise me is that Davies and Channon would usually stand at the edge of the box, McGrath or Gabriel would be in the goalies face causing problems, Paine would take the corner and presumably they had a signal-he could put the ball in very precisely, they would run in and it often ended up in the net.

I cannot understand why this tactic which allows the header so much power running in and was difficult to defend is never used in the current game.

George O'Brien used to say that Paine was so accurate that all he had to do was be in the right place and pop it in, Paine did the rest.

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probing around on U-Tube.........Its easy to find the Ron Davies 4-1 annialation of Man Utd of course, but also quite a few interesting clips from Home internationals of that period ..and in colour.

 

Wales v England 1969-70 has Ron...... and a younger Peter Rodrigues for Wales and Alan Ball for England.

ALSO England v.Wales 1977 1977......features; Shilton, Mick Mills, Dave Watson, KK and Mick Channon -----all one-time England captains who would all be playing for Saints 4 years later...

 

Quite a range of other games from the period, too. ENJOY !..........NOTE: also Wales 4 England 1 in 1980 (no Ron gaols but he features well.)

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Kenwyne Jones is an incredible athlete, but he seems to have serious motivation problems. When he actually can be arsed (like against his old club) he looks brilliant of course.

 

To be fair, he's been playing well for the last few weeks. But as you said, with Kenwyne it's always been his mentality that holds him back.

 

When he was at Sunderland he could have made a big move to a top club, but he didn't get it, sulked, and then ended up at Stoke. He's unplayable when he's on his game, but he's not on it enough.

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Whilst I'm fairly sure the OP was about goal-scoring strikers....

I can't help recalling a Dell game where the opposition had a free-kick just inside our half near the touchline. When the ball came down in our penalty area at the Milton end, it was met by the head of John McGrath..who headed it straight back and over the astonished kicker's head !

 

Knew how to head a ball - did Big John!

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Post 1975 (when I started going) the ones that stand out are Michael Svensson, Ken Monkou, Dean Richards and Dave Watson as defenders. Up front... James Beattie was excellent in the air early in his career - outjumped Spurs keeper to score at SMS in one game I remember.

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Watching yesterday how we could have done with jaidi. For me he pips mark wright and Neil ruddock as the best since 86. No doubt someone will say Ron Davies

 

Because Ron Davies is the only possible answer to the question. Anyone old enough to have seen him play would know that. My first game was against Stoke in 1971 and he scored the winning goal with a far post header at the Milton End

 

Have a look at the You Tube link below. Man United 1 Saints 4 from August 1969. Ron Davies scored all four, three from far post headers

 

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