The Forgotten Man Stephen Elliott Gone to Preston

[youngirish]

Good move for him. Hopefully he can kickstart his career after showing great promise when he first burst on the scene.

[seanfhear]

Interesting times at preston,Alan Irvine is doing a great job there at the moment.It must be exciting for a player to move to a new club with a relatively new manager that is having good results.Best of luck to Stephen.

[Carrigaline]

Supposedly he's known at Wolves for his fondness of the drink. This led to him being transfer listed by McCarthy.

I don't think we'll ever see him play a game for Ireland, surely he's about 10th choice at this stage.

[Stuttgart88]

If he gets the same kind of goal tally he got 3 seasons ago at Sunderland - when he played in fewer than 2/3 of their games too - he could play himself back into the reckoning.

Very talented natural goal scorer, terribly injury prone. Maybe the lack of professionalism referred to above is to blame, maybe not.

[Duggie]

folan....???
pleeaaaaaaaseeeee

[seanfhear]

Keane > Doyle > Murphy > Long > Keogh > Stokes > Morrison > Folan > Lee > N.Hunt

Has to be out of the top 10 at least, I'm sure I'm forgetting some as well.
Stokes has not exactly set the world alight in the last year.
I think I would take stephen over stokes even if it was just on past performances but to be honest I would not argue over the rest

[dr_peepee]

Very talented natural goal scorer, terribly injury prone..

There's no room for a natural goal scorer in todays highly evolved game!!!!:)

Nah!! I think he's past it.. Never recovered from the injury he got that season.

He was quality in the Derby against Newcastle. Should have had a hattrick if I remember correctly. He scored, hit the bar and Given pulled off a brilliant save..

[Wolfie]

A pivotal moment in Kerr's reign was when he opted not to introduce a straight swap of Elliott for Keane against Israel at home.

Kerr later stated that Elliott had been very poor in training.

(Its all hypothetical, I know) but If he'd had more faith in Elliott to do a job on the pitch that day - things could have been very different for all concerned.

[tetsujin1979]

A pivotal moment in Kerr's reign was when he opted not to introduce a straight swap of Elliott for Keane against Israel at home.

Kerr later stated that Elliott had been very poor in training.

(Its all hypothetical, I know) but If he'd had more faith in Elliott to do a job on the pitch that day - things could have been very different for all concerned.Thought it was that he was unfit? Still, he was fit enough to play the following wednesday in the Faroes, and was robbed for a goal

[seanfhear]

A pivotal moment in Kerr's reign was when he opted not to introduce a straight swap of Elliott for Keane against Israel at home.

Kerr later stated that Elliott had been very poor in training.

(Its all hypothetical, I know) but If he'd had more faith in Elliott to do a job on the pitch that day - things could have been very different for all concerned.
Kerr was probably covering up for his own lack of bottle.He more often than not took the defensive option and it cost him in that example.He should have stood by the system that he was playing and not looked for excuses.

[Stuttgart88]

He won the penalty that put us ahead in Faroes and had a great run & shot that was saved I think.

Yep, if only Kerr had brought him on instead of Kavanagh. A pivotal moment alright, that and the 90th minute equaliser in Israel.

At this stage I reckon he's a long shot to ever fulfill his early potential. Still, Preston seem to be going well with a good manager and hopefully he & St. Leger will benefit.

[Stuttgart88]

Kerr was probably covering up for his own lack of bottle.He more often than not took the defensive option and it cost him in that example.He should have stood by the system that he was playing and not looked for excuses.Tetsujin's recent summary was spot on. It was much interpreted as a defensive substitution but he actually moved Duff upfront, taking him from the wing where he was double marked to where he has regularly been ineffective freeing up at least one Israeli and necessitating 3 positional changes. Instead he could have just replaced like with like. My recollection is that eirebhoy contended that we were losing control of midfield anyway which may have been right. In any event, they scored a header from outside the box, a dodgy as fcuk penalty following a skied clearance by Given after an overhit backpass from O'Brien, and we still missed a host of chances in the second half. Kerr may have been tactically inept but he was extraordinarily unlucky I thought too.

[youngirish]

In any event, they scored a header from outside the box, a dodgy as fcuk penalty following a skied clearance by Given after an overhit backpass from O'Brien, and we still missed a host of chances in the second half.
Wasn't the great John O'Shea solely responsible for the penalty manhandling the Israeli forward in the box for no reason whatsoever? It was nothing to do with O'Brien or Given from my recollection.

[seanfhear]

Tetsujin's recent summary was spot on. It was much interpreted as a defensive substitution but he actually moved Duff upfront, taking him from the wing where he was double marked to where he has regularly been ineffective freeing up at least one Israeli and necessitating 3 positional changes. Instead he could have just replaced like with like. My recollection is that eirebhoy contended that we were losing control of midfield anyway which may have been right. In any event, they scored a header from outside the box, a dodgy as fcuk penalty following a skied clearance by Given after an overhit backpass from O'Brien, and we still missed a host of chances in the second half. Kerr may have been tactically inept but he was extraordinarily unlucky I thought too.
Few funny things happened at the end of that game allright.If i remember correctly their goalkeeper got away with all kinds of codology at the end.

In fact a lot of goalkeepers are pulling all kinds of stunts near the end of games to waste time these days(hands to the head and the like,we have all seen it).Maybe its time FIFA did something about it.How about having the sub goalie near at hand ready to come on for these all to predictable injuries(how come its nearly always teams that might benefit from wasting time that have these useful injuries)

[Ordinary Fan]

A fit Elliott would be one of the top 3 strikers for Ireland. I hope for his sake that he can get a run of games without injury so he can get back to his best.
For all the potential goal scorers available at present, our goal scoring record is abysimal and a cause for dropping so many late points.

The Israeli goal keeper punched O'Brien in the face when they were both lying on the ground, then threw his to hand to his own face and O'Brien was sent off. It was a crazy game and Ireland have never recovered from that march.
Kerr's mistake was not necessarily relacing the injured Keane with a mid-fielder as much as making 3 mositional changes to a side that was playing well.

[Stuttgart88]

Wasn't the great John O'Shea solely responsible for the penalty manhandling the Israeli forward in the box for no reason whatsoever? It was nothing to do with O'Brien or Given from my recollection.One of the two goals definitely resulted from a foul conceded following that back-pass sequence.

I thought O'Shea was harshly penalised - the Israeli guy was backing into him while O'Shea was holding his ground. "Manhandling for no reason whatsoever" is a bit revisionist!

I've seen Clinton Morrisson do the same dozens of times at home and we've never been awarded a penalty.

[Bohemian1890]

Keane > Doyle > Murphy > Long > Keogh > Stokes > Morrison > Folan > Lee > N.Hunt

Has to be out of the top 10 at least, I'm sure I'm forgetting some as well.
Stephen Ward?? gets his game as well which is a plus.

[boovidge]

why not Ben Burgess whilst we're here ;)