When an unknown Brazilian keeper called Adriano Basso arrived at Ashton Gate from Conference side Woking in late 2005, many City fans questioned the signing. With Steve Phillips still between the posts, having seen off competition from endless loan signings, I thought the same ending was likely to happen in this case. How wrong I was.
Two and half seasons later and Basso has established himself as a first team regular and Phillips, who couldn’t handle the rejection, headed down the road to Rovers. After two fantastic seasons being our number one keeper, Basso now has aspirations of playing for England or his native Brazil. He now holds a British passport after being in the country for five years and at 32 years of age, he still has a realistic chance of fulfilling his dream. I certainly believe he has the ability to do this. In my opinion he is a far better goalkeeper than the likes of Paul Robinson, whose mistakes have cost England dear in the past. With David James still performing well but his age a concern for many, I think Basso is definitely a capable replacement.
Last week, Basso received the PFA Championship Player of the Month award for March, and it was a well deserved accolade as he saved two penalties over the course of the month, and made countless saves. It is a far cry from the player who arrived nearly three years ago who I thought was nowhere near as good as Phillips. For starters, his goal kicking was abysmal as he struggled to get the ball over the half way line, but I am glad to say this has since improved and it is only on rare occasions that one of his kicks will put hearts in mouths. I was also a bit wary of his shot stopping ability, which was one Phillips’s best assets. However the Brazilian has proven me wrong and I am glad he has.
After looking at Basso and Phillips, the ability and attitudes towards football could not be more different. It is clear Adriano understands football is a team game and on the odd occasion when he has lost his place to Chris Weale, he has accepted it. Phillips on the other hand will throw his toys out of the pram and blame every other player around him before he even contemplates whether he made a mistake. This was demonstrated in one of his last appearances in a City shirt when Phillips failed to save a free kick aimed straight at him, against Notts County in the FA Cup. County, who were a league below us, beat us 2-0 at home and Steve blamed the goal on the new ball which had been introduced specifically for the competition.
Since that day, the two goalkeepers have seen their careers go in opposite directions and it is no surprise to me to see why. Basso’s attitude, along with that of the rest of the City squad, is fantastic and that is one of the main reasons we find ourselves in the position we are. The players will work for one another and are pleased to see another team mate do well, even if it means they have to sit on the bench and watch the game. It is a team spirit I hope will not be ruined if we managed to win promotion and see half of the squad replaced with new players. But I don’t think Gary Johnson would let that happen.
If City can reach the Premier League, surely Basso would stand a great chance of gaining his first international cap whether it is with England or Brazil? To me, there is no better goalkeeper in the Football League and we were very lucky to find him. So what do the rest of you City fans think, could Basso play for England?
ANDY DAVIES
Friday, 4 April 2008
Monday, 31 March 2008
Closing in on the Premiership. Bring Wilson back?
It’s the old cliché, but a week is really a long time in football. Last week I wrote about how City’s chances of remaining in the top two looked under threat as we were without a win in five games and the teams around us were closing in, particularly Hull City, who have been in fantastic form in recent weeks. But seven days after our dismal performance and result against Cardiff, we now sit proudly again at the top of the league with just five games to go. But I suppose that’s what football is all about.
Going into the Norwich match on Saturday, we had only managed three goals from our last five games and I suspected if we were going to beat Glen Roeder’s team, we would have to keep a clean sheet. Unfortunately we couldn’t stop Darren Huckerby cancelling out Dele Adebola’s close range finish on 70 minutes and we looked almost certain to end the game having collected only one point. To be fair to Norwich, they had plenty of chances in the second half to win the game, and will count themselves unlucky not to score a second goal.
But what a finish we had. Steve Brooker, making his ‘home debut’ for a second time after a disastrous 14 months of persistent injuries, pops up in the box to head the ball into the net in the 93rd minute, and it could prove to be his most important goal in a City shirt.
After five games without a win Gary Johnson decided to reshuffle his starting eleven with regulars like Marvin Elliot and Ivan Sproule making way for Cole Skuse and Scott Murray, who have both waited patiently all season for their chance. Lee Trundle and Darren Byfield also found themselves out of the squad, having to watch the game from the stands. Gary, explaining his selection at the end of the game, said he felt after the Cardiff game that he had too many players in the squad who hadn’t been with him last season. If we had lost, his thinking would have come back to haunt him, but in the end it worked out well.
Elliot, although one of our players of the season, has looked tired in recent games and was in need of a rest. Similarly, Sproule hasn’t set us alight in recent matches and with Brian Wilson failing to fulfil the right wing role it was good to see Scott put on the shirt again. As Gary said, his starting eleven only contained two players who had not been part of the promotion season last year, with McIndoe and Adebola starting, although McIndoe has already played under Gary at Yeovil and knows what Johnson expects of him.
The inclusion of Skuse received a mixed reaction from myself – I was pleased Elliot was being rested, but am not the biggest fan of Skuse. But to be fair to him he played very well, getting better as the match wore on and made some important tackles. He also won the Man of the Match award, so I must be wrong about him!
Now things are looking very exciting with City at the top of the league with just five games to go, and we are on course to achieve something none of us dreamed of at the start of the season. Yet some people are never satisfied, as I found out on Saturday, with one so-called ‘supporter’ wishing we still had Danny Wilson as manager because we ‘played better football under him’. If that were the case, we would be still languishing in the third tier of English football. It’s funny how you only hear these ‘fans’ when they are moaning. Yet when a the team have a good shot or defend well, it likely to go unnoticed and when we score, they seem to act as if they have been encouraging the team all along. But I guess that’s football.
ANDY DAVIES
Going into the Norwich match on Saturday, we had only managed three goals from our last five games and I suspected if we were going to beat Glen Roeder’s team, we would have to keep a clean sheet. Unfortunately we couldn’t stop Darren Huckerby cancelling out Dele Adebola’s close range finish on 70 minutes and we looked almost certain to end the game having collected only one point. To be fair to Norwich, they had plenty of chances in the second half to win the game, and will count themselves unlucky not to score a second goal.
But what a finish we had. Steve Brooker, making his ‘home debut’ for a second time after a disastrous 14 months of persistent injuries, pops up in the box to head the ball into the net in the 93rd minute, and it could prove to be his most important goal in a City shirt.
After five games without a win Gary Johnson decided to reshuffle his starting eleven with regulars like Marvin Elliot and Ivan Sproule making way for Cole Skuse and Scott Murray, who have both waited patiently all season for their chance. Lee Trundle and Darren Byfield also found themselves out of the squad, having to watch the game from the stands. Gary, explaining his selection at the end of the game, said he felt after the Cardiff game that he had too many players in the squad who hadn’t been with him last season. If we had lost, his thinking would have come back to haunt him, but in the end it worked out well.
Elliot, although one of our players of the season, has looked tired in recent games and was in need of a rest. Similarly, Sproule hasn’t set us alight in recent matches and with Brian Wilson failing to fulfil the right wing role it was good to see Scott put on the shirt again. As Gary said, his starting eleven only contained two players who had not been part of the promotion season last year, with McIndoe and Adebola starting, although McIndoe has already played under Gary at Yeovil and knows what Johnson expects of him.
The inclusion of Skuse received a mixed reaction from myself – I was pleased Elliot was being rested, but am not the biggest fan of Skuse. But to be fair to him he played very well, getting better as the match wore on and made some important tackles. He also won the Man of the Match award, so I must be wrong about him!
Now things are looking very exciting with City at the top of the league with just five games to go, and we are on course to achieve something none of us dreamed of at the start of the season. Yet some people are never satisfied, as I found out on Saturday, with one so-called ‘supporter’ wishing we still had Danny Wilson as manager because we ‘played better football under him’. If that were the case, we would be still languishing in the third tier of English football. It’s funny how you only hear these ‘fans’ when they are moaning. Yet when a the team have a good shot or defend well, it likely to go unnoticed and when we score, they seem to act as if they have been encouraging the team all along. But I guess that’s football.
ANDY DAVIES
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Dare to dream? But don't bother with predictions
You can tell it’s that time of the season. I wasn’t able to attend Plymouth Argyle’s 1-1 draw with Watford on Saturday – Easter weekend holiday with family and other half – but even in the days before the game I could feel a creeping sense of fevered anticipation, significantly greater than for an average game.
Going into the tie Argyle were sixth, a point clear of the chasing pack, although those behind had games in hand. Following it, our lead is now only on goal difference from Ipswich, who have played a game fewer, and looking at the remaining fixtures I believe the likeliest outcome will be a straight fight between ourselves and the Tractor Boys for the final play-off spot.
For several weeks I have been resisting the self-conscious inanities of constructing a fantasy Championship future on the BBC Sport website’s Predictor. However, with Argyle’s ‘Played’ column now sporting a heroic big four-o, and reasoning that some quickfire stabs in the dark would not be an utterly ridiculous waste of time, I took the plunge.
And it reminded me of one of the reasons I stopped gambling on football – even though, on a basic level, your own team is the sporting area you are most knowledgeable about, it really is impossible to be entirely honest about their fortunes, whether occurred or anticipated. When you’ve invested so many years and pounds in something, the strong possibility of having your greatest ever success snatched away seems too horrible to acknowledge, yet expecting your dreams to be fulfilled seems like self-delusion.
Coupled with the dizzying unpredictability of this season’s Championship, guessing scorelines seems largely pointless.
But I did it anyway, and supposedly Argyle will win four of six remaining games, drawing the other two and finishing on 73 points, sixth on goal difference from Ipswich.
Looking at it now, this seems very optimistic. But the pivotal half-dozen, on paper at least, are hardly frightening. On Saturday we travel to Coventry, mired in a relegation battle which I think could be ultimately unsuccessful, and coming off the back of two goal-less bore draws with other strugglers. Our other games on the road – where an impressive eight wins have been racked up this season – are a televised trip to Paul Sturrock’s old club Sheffield Wednesday, on decent form but still in the bottom three and with manager Brian Laws on shaky ground, and the final day tussle with Wolverhampton Wanderers. This is surely the trickiest one left, and nightmares of an Ebanks-Blake winner to send his new club into the top six at our expense are already surfacing amongst the Green Army.
At home we have Charlton, winless in five and seemingly fading from view, and Lancashire sides Preston and Blackpool. The historic clubs of Finney and Matthews have pulled themselves away from worries of demotion through good form, but are better on their own patches and will not fancy the long trips south, especially considering their safety should be pretty much assured by then.
But for now, perhaps it’s better to glory in Jermaine Easter’s crushing finish to give Argyle the lead on Saturday. Not only did the Welsh international bury his one-on-one hoodoo against Hornets keeper Richard Lee, but he kept the Pilgrims in the play-off hunt. And what a weekend to do it - a headline writer's soggy slumber.
It was also great to see a decent crowd at Home Park at last - more than 17,500, and hopefully this will be repeated for the remaining home fixtures.
The injury to and sending off of Peter Halmosi, still by far our most important player, was a blow. But at least the Hungarian might have got all his bad luck for the season out of the way in one game, and missing the Magyars' midweek friendly with Slovenia (which Kristian Timar should feature in) could provide him with a well-earnt rest. If Halmosi's back for the Charlton home game on April 5, expect a re-energised magician tearing through the Addicks' defence.
The Coventry match really is a must-win, even with Peter – we can’t keep relying on our rivals slipping up, as has been the case in the last few weeks. As the 2007-8 season reaches its conclusion, the pressure on sides at top and bottom will become greatest, and it will be character as much as technique which breeds success. Argyle under Luggy have rarely been short of character.
RICH PARTINGTON
Going into the tie Argyle were sixth, a point clear of the chasing pack, although those behind had games in hand. Following it, our lead is now only on goal difference from Ipswich, who have played a game fewer, and looking at the remaining fixtures I believe the likeliest outcome will be a straight fight between ourselves and the Tractor Boys for the final play-off spot.
For several weeks I have been resisting the self-conscious inanities of constructing a fantasy Championship future on the BBC Sport website’s Predictor. However, with Argyle’s ‘Played’ column now sporting a heroic big four-o, and reasoning that some quickfire stabs in the dark would not be an utterly ridiculous waste of time, I took the plunge.
And it reminded me of one of the reasons I stopped gambling on football – even though, on a basic level, your own team is the sporting area you are most knowledgeable about, it really is impossible to be entirely honest about their fortunes, whether occurred or anticipated. When you’ve invested so many years and pounds in something, the strong possibility of having your greatest ever success snatched away seems too horrible to acknowledge, yet expecting your dreams to be fulfilled seems like self-delusion.
Coupled with the dizzying unpredictability of this season’s Championship, guessing scorelines seems largely pointless.
But I did it anyway, and supposedly Argyle will win four of six remaining games, drawing the other two and finishing on 73 points, sixth on goal difference from Ipswich.
Looking at it now, this seems very optimistic. But the pivotal half-dozen, on paper at least, are hardly frightening. On Saturday we travel to Coventry, mired in a relegation battle which I think could be ultimately unsuccessful, and coming off the back of two goal-less bore draws with other strugglers. Our other games on the road – where an impressive eight wins have been racked up this season – are a televised trip to Paul Sturrock’s old club Sheffield Wednesday, on decent form but still in the bottom three and with manager Brian Laws on shaky ground, and the final day tussle with Wolverhampton Wanderers. This is surely the trickiest one left, and nightmares of an Ebanks-Blake winner to send his new club into the top six at our expense are already surfacing amongst the Green Army.
At home we have Charlton, winless in five and seemingly fading from view, and Lancashire sides Preston and Blackpool. The historic clubs of Finney and Matthews have pulled themselves away from worries of demotion through good form, but are better on their own patches and will not fancy the long trips south, especially considering their safety should be pretty much assured by then.
But for now, perhaps it’s better to glory in Jermaine Easter’s crushing finish to give Argyle the lead on Saturday. Not only did the Welsh international bury his one-on-one hoodoo against Hornets keeper Richard Lee, but he kept the Pilgrims in the play-off hunt. And what a weekend to do it - a headline writer's soggy slumber.
It was also great to see a decent crowd at Home Park at last - more than 17,500, and hopefully this will be repeated for the remaining home fixtures.
The injury to and sending off of Peter Halmosi, still by far our most important player, was a blow. But at least the Hungarian might have got all his bad luck for the season out of the way in one game, and missing the Magyars' midweek friendly with Slovenia (which Kristian Timar should feature in) could provide him with a well-earnt rest. If Halmosi's back for the Charlton home game on April 5, expect a re-energised magician tearing through the Addicks' defence.
The Coventry match really is a must-win, even with Peter – we can’t keep relying on our rivals slipping up, as has been the case in the last few weeks. As the 2007-8 season reaches its conclusion, the pressure on sides at top and bottom will become greatest, and it will be character as much as technique which breeds success. Argyle under Luggy have rarely been short of character.
RICH PARTINGTON
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