Dom Ballard

[coalman]

5 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

Surprised to see that Dom is back fit again.

Should have passed the ball to a fellow player.

Not the RussBall way, I'm afraid

If they'd cycled through ball back to their keeper they could have drawn out the Polish defence and then hit them by surprise.

[david in sweden]

21 hours ago, disconnect said:

Good to see. England under 19s? Wa surprised to see he was still 19,   seems he's been on the scene about 4 years! 

Looks like he has only scored one goal on his loan, however, hopefully this will bring a few more as he gains more minutes. 

I think Dom had an injury after the start of this season after scoring that goal and it took time for him to get back to fitness. 

 

Ironically, he came up to our U18 side at age 15, (alongside Morgan and Dibling) and had a fantastic goal scoring record at both

U18 and U21 level, and was clearly the best goalscorer of the three youngsters at that time. 

Morgan left and joined the myriad of young players in his age group at Chelsea and has scarcely been heard of since, but had Ballard 

not been injured on last season's loan at Reading, I'm sure he would have been in our first team and Dibling would likely be on the bench. 

Now Dom is getting some experience of " men's football " at Blackpool, but I hope we don't lose him in some future clear-out of young talents.

 

I feel sorry for the likes of Sims and Vokins who had very good Academy careers, but sadly "slipped through the cracks" whilst shadowing our

more experienced first team players and ended up getting very little game time after they passed 21,  and then had unsatisfactory loan spells. 

 

[Dusic]

Off to Cambridge on loan.

Probably a make or break one for him from a Saints perspective. Score goals and a good pre season puts him well in contention.

If he doesn't do much then at risk of being another who cannot translate U21 form to mens football.

Good luck to him because he can clearly finish when given opportunities.

[trousers]

I've always thought that Ballard and Dibling were of a similar standard historically, so slightly surprised not to see Ballard in the frame for some first team experience for the remainder of the season, on a "nothing to lose" basis, given we're down and that he surely can't be any worse than our senior striker options....

That said, I can also see the pros of maximising his game time in a lower league, especially if he starting to fall behind Dibling's development curve...

Edited Monday at 13:30 by trousers

[SuperSAINT]

27 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Off to Cambridge on loan.

Probably a make or break one for him from a Saints perspective. Score goals and a good pre season puts him well in contention.

If he doesn't do much then at risk of being another who cannot translate U21 form to mens football.

Good luck to him because he can clearly finish when given opportunities.

Was off my radar that Garry Monk is the manager there.

[ErwinK1961]

35 minutes ago, trousers said:

I've always thought that Ballard and Dibling were of a similar standard historically, so slightly surprised not to see Ballard in the frame for some first team experience for the remainder of the season, on a "nothing to lose" basis, given we're down and that he surely can't be any worse than our senior striker options....

That said, I can also see the pros of maximising his game time in a lower league, especially if he starting to fall behind Dibling's development curve...

As bad as our options are currently, they are all proven goalscorer’s at a certain level. Armstrong / Archer Championship, TP foreign leagues.

DB hasn’t proven himself prolific at anything other than u21 level. Not torn it up on loan in league one. Also not shown himself to necessarily be physically ready for full time men’s football (but unlucky with injuries too). Hopefully he turns into a brilliant player, but he’s also just as likely to be another Ryan Seager.

As Dusic says, hopefully this loan does the business and he hits the ground running in pre-season, but nothing to suggest he should be chucked into the bear pit of the premier league.

[trousers]

18 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

As bad as our options are currently, they are all proven goalscorer’s at a certain level. Armstrong / Archer Championship, TP foreign leagues.

DB hasn’t proven himself prolific at anything other than u21 level. Not torn it up on loan in league one. Also not shown himself to necessarily be physically ready for full time men’s football (but unlucky with injuries too). Hopefully he turns into a brilliant player, but he’s also just as likely to be another Ryan Seager.

As Dusic says, hopefully this loan does the business and he hits the ground running in pre-season, but nothing to suggest he should be chucked into the bear pit of the premier league.

Fair points 👍

[SNSUN]

2 hours ago, ErwinK1961 said:

As bad as our options are currently, they are all proven goalscorer’s at a certain level. Armstrong / Archer Championship, TP foreign leagues.

DB hasn’t proven himself prolific at anything other than u21 level. Not torn it up on loan in league one. Also not shown himself to necessarily be physically ready for full time men’s football (but unlucky with injuries too). Hopefully he turns into a brilliant player, but he’s also just as likely to be another Ryan Seager.

As Dusic says, hopefully this loan does the business and he hits the ground running in pre-season, but nothing to suggest he should be chucked into the bear pit of the premier league.

Not to mention we're only 2 weeks away from seeing the Loch Ness Drogba. 😁

Good luck Dom, ironically I think we're OK for Championship strikers next season in AA, Archer and BBD but depends if BBD comes back. Perhaps 4th choice?

[Matthew Le God]

3 hours ago, trousers said:

I've always thought that Ballard and Dibling were of a similar standard historically, so slightly surprised not to see Ballard in the frame for some first team experience for the remainder of the season, on a "nothing to lose" basis, given we're down and that he surely can't be any worse than our senior striker options....

That said, I can also see the pros of maximising his game time in a lower league, especially if he starting to fall behind Dibling's development curve...

Scoring only 1 goal in 18 League One matches this season suggests Ballard has a long way to go before being given a PL chance.

[Whitey Grandad]

4 hours ago, Dusic said:

Off to Cambridge on loan.

Probably a make or break one for him from a Saints perspective. Score goals and a good pre season puts him well in contention.

If he doesn't do much then at risk of being another who cannot translate U21 form to mens football.

Good luck to him because he can clearly finish when given opportunities.

He scored against them back in 2022.

[benjii]

4 hours ago, SuperSAINT said:

Was off my radar that Garry Monk is the manager there.

He can show him Hotshots after the match.

[Chez]

6 hours ago, trousers said:

I've always thought that Ballard and Dibling were of a similar standard historically, so slightly surprised not to see Ballard in the frame for some first team experience for the remainder of the season, on a "nothing to lose" basis, given we're down and that he surely can't be any worse than our senior striker options....

That said, I can also see the pros of maximising his game time in a lower league, especially if he starting to fall behind Dibling's development curve...

Dibling already has the physique to allow him to do what he wants to do. Ballard doesn't, yet. He is actually pretty small and I'm, not sure he has great pace to compensate. In the meantime he's going to be reliant on movement, positioning and chances being created for him. We will need to be more patient.

Edited Monday at 19:50 by Chez

[S-Clarke]

On 27/01/2025 at 13:29, trousers said:

I've always thought that Ballard and Dibling were of a similar standard historically, so slightly surprised not to see Ballard in the frame for some first team experience for the remainder of the season, on a "nothing to lose" basis, given we're down and that he surely can't be any worse than our senior striker options....

That said, I can also see the pros of maximising his game time in a lower league, especially if he starting to fall behind Dibling's development curve...

I don't think so, Dibling is a one of a kind really. Ballard was just there in the kids teams to finish off all the chances! Sadly the injury didn't help him, bit of a bummer really as it was a bad one.

If I'm totally honest with you I see another Josh Sims/Jamie White type career with him, some promise, bags and bags of goals at underage, fans clamouring for him to play, but never quite good enough to make the step up to pro football consistently.