Was he ever a behind the striker type of player? He's always been the deep sitting midfielder in a midfield 5 from what I've seen.
Shearer also credited McCarthy on Match of the Day. Must be a BBC thing.
I'm positive he said McCarthy. I don't have access to the BBC iPlayer so we'll have to solve this with fisticuffs.
Survival of the fittest, my insect friend. That's how we do things in nature![]()
If you've ever played football, the minor fact who had the assist(mccarthur btw), isn't important.
The act itself is very important, maybe people won't tally up assists and use them as a measure of a players worth,(if you read the various discussions involving McGeady around here you will see some regard it as very important) like they would with goals, but being that guy who creates chances for goals is a pretty good selling point.
Last edited by Acornvilla; 27/11/2011 at 6:52 AM.
Ah, maybe, I only saw him a couple of times for them.
The Wigan Mc's are doomed to be confused with each other, sure there's only a syllable of a difference between 'em. Forget commentary, I look for ginger and a shirt number, in that order.
Really hard to find good Wigan forums. Best I could find on sat's match was this:
http://www.wigan.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=263826
Seems like a good source. McCarthy gradually getting there fingers crossed
http://thesun.mobi/thescottishsun/sp...acy.html?mob=1
NATIONAL PRIDE ... Mathie says McGeady and McCarthy did not want Scotland calls
AIDEN McGEADY and James McCarthy.
They're the two names constantly flung at Ross Mathie as proof that the SFA's youth system has failed the national team.
But Hampden youth chief Mathie who'll retire at the end of the year after 30 years with the SFA has come out fighting over the criticism of his department.
He says ex-Celt McGeady was picked by Scotland three times but opted for the Republic of Ireland and that McCarthy was similarly always intent on playing for the Irish.
Mathie, who'll be given a going-away lunch by the SFA this week, said: "The advice I give players is that the decision they make at the time is the right decision.
"Aiden was picked three times for Scotland squads and he withdrew every time because he was determined he was going with Ireland.
"We had a good relationship with Willie McStay at Celtic and with his dad, John.
"Aiden was the only youth player who was ever brought in to meet a Scotland manager.
"Berti Vogts told him he was one of the best players in the country and, as much as he could do, guaranteed he would play for Scotland.
"But Aiden was adamant that he wanted to choose Ireland and I wrote to him and told him it was a mature decision for a 15-year-old and wished him all the best.
"James McCarthy I still get accused of having missed. But he had always said it was his grandfather's dying wish that he play for the Republic. In that situation, rightly or wrongly, I wouldn't want to change someone's mind "If someone else wants to try, fine. I've never been like that.
"I firmly believe you can't go back and I respect the decision James made. Whether people respect mine is another debate, but I wouldn't go back on it.
"We watched him many times, both myself and Archie Knox. He was in Hamilton's first-team at the time and we thought he was okay, but we felt there were others who were similar.
"I'm delighted he's become the player he has. I don't watch him on TV on a Saturday night with any regrets.
"If he'd come to Scotland at a later age level you would be saying Scotland have a good player. I felt I made the right decision other people will say it was wrong.
"Things balance out. We've a lad in our system just now called Ryan Fulton who's a goalkeeper with Liverpool.
"Ryan can play for Scotland or England and we've been aware of him for 18 months.
"In May he played for our under-15s against Belgium.
"After that, England approached Liverpool and asked him to go with them.
"But he's with us and told them he was committed to Scotland. So it can work both ways.
"There's an even stranger one with the sons of John Hendrie, the former Middlesbrough striker. One of John's sons, Luke, plays with England's youths and doesn't want to change, even though we've tried.
"His brother Jordan is with Bolton and he is playing for Scotland. So you could have brothers playing for different countries, like Joe and Gerry Baker did in the 1960s."
Mathie worked with Vogts during his spell as Scotland manager and says the German was responsible for a lot of good work behind the scenes.
He said: "A lot of the people Berti brought in are now internationals. He gave a lot of opportunities to a lot of players.
"I'm sure the experience Gary Caldwell received early on will have equipped him better than if he hasn't had it.
"Berti came over to the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland to speak to Darren Fletcher because he could have played for the Republic of Ireland.
"He sat and talked with Darren and Darren assured him he was committed to us.
"He set up a national teams department. I showed him the program we had at youth level and he said we needed to quadruple the number of games we played. He went in and got us money to play more often.
"He was also responsible for the youth squads going on winter training camps to Malta.
"The trip he made to Ireland was the one where Darren Fletcher played against the Republic and I'd agreed with Manchester United that he would play for an hour.
"I'd looked at my watch and the hour was up when Darren went through, lobbed the keeper to score, clashed with the keeper and broke a bone in his foot. I had the joyous job of ringing Sir Alex after that!
"Darren has been a fantastic presence, on and off the pitch.
"Everything he's achieved has been down to United, his application, attitude and ability."
Played the full game in Wigans 1-2 win over west brom on Saturday which can only be good.
Conor Sammon started too.
"Now jump up there and stuff that son of a bitch in the basket, chief"
McCarthy had a good first half. Faded a bit in the second half. But it was unquestionably his best performance of the year so far (wouldn't have been hard to outdo his previous performances). He is still far below his best. But at least he is moving (all be it slowly) in the right direction. The fans really like Sammon. His performances have been full of energy and he has proved a handful for defences. He needs a goal soon to copperfasten his premier league credentials though
Was at that game at the weekend. Sammon was pretty much as he was for UCD - held the ball up well, was more hit than miss with his lay-offs, couldn't head the ball (which gave WBA three chances in the first three minutes) and didn't really look like scoring. However, in his defence, Wigan were on the back foot for much of the game (and defended superbly, which is unusual for them), and he had a great chance to score in the second half but Victor Moses - who'd already scored and won a penalty - decided to take on three defenders on the edge of the box rather than square to Sammon, who was unmarked five yards to the right. He made one lovely run in particular right behind the defensive line which opened up a big gap for Moses to run into.
I don't know if it's coincidence, but in the four games Sammo has started, they've picked up seven points (losing only to Arsenal) and scored seven goals. This compares to five points and seven goals from their first 11 games. He's very much in the mould of Cox and Walters (when playing for us), so if he gets an extended run (and scores a few), he could well be an option for the New Year.
Didn't really see much of McCarthy, but wasn't paying attention to him really. Super goal from Steven Reid too. Shane Long got into some good spaces, but his finishing left him down.
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