WHO would be your No. 9 come Muratti day? It’s worth asking the question because, unlike his immediate predecessors, island manager Steve Ogier is unlikely to get much chance to pick an XI without the hindrance of age restrictions as well as long-term injuries.
It’s worth remembering that when, on Saturday week, he sends out the island side for the FA Carlsberg National League Systems Cup quarter-final against the Amateur Football Combination, he will not be able to pick anyone under the age of 19 on 2001 January 2007 and older than 33, or indeed anyone who has been under contract at any stage of their career.
The restrictions rule out, among others, our best centre-half and my first-choice Muratti captain, Kevin Graham, emerging defenders Naro Zimmerman, Tom Straw-bridge and Alex Le Prevost, soon-to-be-fit again Micky Wilson and striker Neil Clegg.
It’s a list of absentees far too long than any manager would wish, particularly one who is starved of the smallest collection of striking alternatives in the history of the local game.
Forget the AFA clash next week, who lines up against Jersey in May is of paramount importance to most football fans and anyone who has seen the last two Belgraves matches will, surely, argue until they are blue-and-white in the face that McGrath has to start. By amateur standard, a couple of his recent goals have been brilliant.
The trouble is Ogier S., not M., his Bels boss, has yet to be convinced by ‘little Crusher’s’ effectiveness in the hurly-burly of a Muratti final and, on past evidence, you have to have some sympathy with the island manager on that one.
The comparisons with other ‘tiddlers’ are worth noting.
Alan ‘Tich’ Bougourd would walk into today’s island side, but was as lightweight and diminutive as the modern-day Bels hotshot.
Both could be bullied, but Bougourd would simply bounce straight back up and try again. He could not be intimidated, just pushed around.
In the past, McGrath has not shown quite the same willingness to mix it.
On the other hand, as good a finisher as the Vale stalwart was, it may be that he did not quite possess the finishing technique of McGrath whose volleyed goal in the recent league win over Bels was of the highest order.
If the Muratti were tomorrow McGrath would surely start, as he did last May, but in a few months time that could change.
Simon Tostevin is finally back from a lengthy spell on the sidelines and as long as his knee holds up one would expect him to get the cap he richly deserved last season before he was cut down by injury in the death throes the campaign.
By spring there are also the merits of Rangers’ Jon Veron and Ross Allen to consider.
Enthused by the switch to St Andrew’s, Veron is enjoying a fine campaign and while Allen’s season has been dogged by injury, he was deemed good enough last season.
It could, of course, be a case of tackling Jersey without a target man as such and rely on Dom Heaume, brilliant of late, pushing forward to split two of the little guys.
The other conundrums are who keeps goal and where do we find a left-back now that the admittedly off form Olly McKenzie has gone travelling?
On current merit you would have to plump for Paul de Garis between the sticks but, and sorry ‘Digger’ but it has to be said, the Sylvans man has fluffed too many times at the top level.
That leaves Nathan Pattimore and Jody Bisson to contest the jersey and that’s one tough call in my eyes.
At left back I’d lay money that whoever gets the nod is not a natural left-footer.
Sinatra fan Tom Strawbridge could win the place and if so he could claim he had done it his way, but the spot might just as easily go to the Belgrave who not much more than a year ago could not be bothered to train for island selection, the versatile Joby Bourgaize.
All things considered and it’s only a shot in the dark with four months to, see the panel for a potential Muratti starting XI.
Crushing brilliance makes it hard to ignore McGrath
By Rob Batiste
WHO would be your No. 9 come Muratti day? It’s worth asking the question because, unlike his immediate predecessors, island manager Steve Ogier is unlikely to get much chance to pick an XI without the hindrance of age restrictions as well as long-term injuries.
It’s worth remembering that when, on Saturday week, he sends out the island side for the FA Carlsberg National League Systems Cup quarter-final against the Amateur Football Combination, he will not be able to pick anyone under the age of 19 on 2001 January 2007 and older than 33, or indeed anyone who has been under contract at any stage of their career.
The restrictions rule out, among others, our best centre-half and my first-choice Muratti captain, Kevin Graham, emerging defenders Naro Zimmerman, Tom Straw-bridge and Alex Le Prevost, soon-to-be-fit again Micky Wilson and striker Neil Clegg.
It’s a list of absentees far too long than any manager would wish, particularly one who is starved of the smallest collection of striking alternatives in the history of the local game.
Forget the AFA clash next week, who lines up against Jersey in May is of paramount importance to most football fans and anyone who has seen the last two Belgraves matches will, surely, argue until they are blue-and-white in the face that McGrath has to start. By amateur standard, a couple of his recent goals have been brilliant.
The trouble is Ogier S., not M., his Bels boss, has yet to be convinced by ‘little Crusher’s’ effectiveness in the hurly-burly of a Muratti final and, on past evidence, you have to have some sympathy with the island manager on that one.
The comparisons with other ‘tiddlers’ are worth noting.
Alan ‘Tich’ Bougourd would walk into today’s island side, but was as lightweight and diminutive as the modern-day Bels hotshot.
Both could be bullied, but Bougourd would simply bounce straight back up and try again. He could not be intimidated, just pushed around.
In the past, McGrath has not shown quite the same willingness to mix it.
On the other hand, as good a finisher as the Vale stalwart was, it may be that he did not quite possess the finishing technique of McGrath whose volleyed goal in the recent league win over Bels was of the highest order.
If the Muratti were tomorrow McGrath would surely start, as he did last May, but in a few months time that could change.
Simon Tostevin is finally back from a lengthy spell on the sidelines and as long as his knee holds up one would expect him to get the cap he richly deserved last season before he was cut down by injury in the death throes the campaign.
By spring there are also the merits of Rangers’ Jon Veron and Ross Allen to consider.
Enthused by the switch to St Andrew’s, Veron is enjoying a fine campaign and while Allen’s season has been dogged by injury, he was deemed good enough last season.
It could, of course, be a case of tackling Jersey without a target man as such and rely on Dom Heaume, brilliant of late, pushing forward to split two of the little guys.
The other conundrums are who keeps goal and where do we find a left-back now that the admittedly off form Olly McKenzie has gone travelling?
On current merit you would have to plump for Paul de Garis between the sticks but, and sorry ‘Digger’ but it has to be said, the Sylvans man has fluffed too many times at the top level.
That leaves Nathan Pattimore and Jody Bisson to contest the jersey and that’s one tough call in my eyes.
At left back I’d lay money that whoever gets the nod is not a natural left-footer.
Sinatra fan Tom Strawbridge could win the place and if so he could claim he had done it his way, but the spot might just as easily go to the Belgrave who not much more than a year ago could not be bothered to train for island selection, the versatile Joby Bourgaize.
All things considered and it’s only a shot in the dark with four months to, see the panel for a potential Muratti starting XI.
Article posted on 12th January, 2008 - 12.00am