Brillant

[James Kent 0]

You''re top of the league with a five point margin. You''re the top scorers in the division. You''ve got a leading goalscorer who has netted 25 times, and your supporting striker has netted 19 times. Even your midfield play-maker has bagged 13. Your opponents tomorrow have a top scorer with 7 goals, and he''s no longer with the club. So what do you do? If you''re Norwich City, you go out and buy another striker.

Ah, how the other half lives. Preston North End''s Stephen Elliott is the man in question. The 26 year old has had a medical at Carrow Road this morning, and now just needs the paperwork processed to allow him to play in tomorrow afternoon''s match against Yeovil Town.

Elliott is a former Manchester City youth product, who became a first team regular at Sunderland, scoring 16 goals in his first season at the Stadium of Light, that helped them gain promotion to the Premier League. With Sunderland being a bit of a yo-yo club around that time, he picked up a second Championship medal with the same side a couple of years later. He is a Republic of Ireland international, capped nine times, with one goal to his name.

Since leaving Sunderland in 2007, he has played for Wolverhampton Wanderers, and in the summer of 2008, he moved to Preston North End. He has now signed on loan at Carrow Road until the end of the season, thus bolstering a squad that already boasts Grant Holt, Chris Martin, Wes Hoolahan, Cody MacDonald and Oli Johnson as attacking options. Don''t suppose you''d let Yeovil take one of them on loan would you, Mr Lambert?

[pete_norw 0]

[quote user="Jim Kent"]You''re top of the league with a five point margin. You''re the top scorers in the division. You''ve got a leading goalscorer who has netted 25 times, and your supporting striker has netted 19 times. Even your midfield play-maker has bagged 13. Your opponents tomorrow have a top scorer with 7 goals, and he''s no longer with the club. So what do you do? If you''re Norwich City, you go out and buy another striker. Ah, how the other half lives. Preston North End''s Stephen Elliott is the man in question. The 26 year old has had a medical at Carrow Road this morning, and now just needs the paperwork processed to allow him to play in tomorrow afternoon''s match against Yeovil Town. Elliott is a former Manchester City youth product, who became a first team regular at Sunderland, scoring 16 goals in his first season at the Stadium of Light, that helped them gain promotion to the Premier League. With Sunderland being a bit of a yo-yo club around that time, he picked up a second Championship medal with the same side a couple of years later. He is a Republic of Ireland international, capped nine times, with one goal to his name. Since leaving Sunderland in 2007, he has played for Wolverhampton Wanderers, and in the summer of 2008, he moved to Preston North End. He has now signed on loan at Carrow Road until the end of the season, thus bolstering a squad that already boasts Grant Holt, Chris Martin, Wes Hoolahan, Cody MacDonald and Oli Johnson as attacking options. Don''t suppose you''d let Yeovil take one of them on loan would you, Mr Lambert?[/quote]

You forgot to include all cup goals that give us a tally of 93 so far, so 100+ is not unexpected, shame we let Cureton go to Shrewsbury, you could have had him  for nothing, mind you he would do nothing other than scare the pants off people sitting to the left or right of the goal,

[James Kent 0]

Pete,

Should point out this isn''t my article just copied it from a Yeovil site.

Thought it was funny on how other teams view us and it''s nice to be the team that everyone envies for a change!

[I am a Banana 0]

nice to seee that teams fear our striker force!

[Squire 0]

I suspect one or more (heaven forbid) of our strikers is carrying an injury. Rumour has it that Holt has problems (back/ankle) and Martin is playing as if he may have a problem (outside being a touch lazy at times). I hope I''m barking up the wrong tree.

[Bill 1,788]

Well sorry my runty little club but that''s football. Nothing against the club or fans but could you expect us to say the same about Chelsea.

Suggest they are trying to get their excuses in first.

Curious to see that we have bought Elliot. News to me.

Though loan for the rest of the season is often that. They don''t want to pay his wages so anyone willing to take him on and his contract is welcome. These next few months will be a trial, otherwise back you go matey boy.

Unfortunately if he does sign some simple souls will think that his total contract with us is a transfer fee then start making assumptions on that basis.

[Hairy Canary 667]

[quote user="Squire"]I suspect one or more (heaven forbid) of our strikers is carrying an injury. Rumour has it that Holt has problems (back/ankle) and Martin is playing as if he may have a problem (outside being a touch lazy at times). I hope I''m barking up the wrong tree.[/quote]

This is such unfair critisism. He is not lazy! The guy makes very intellegent off the ball runs all the time. Its how he creates space to be in the right place at the right time to score many of his goals. Compare him to Leon who ran his socks off, a-la a headless chicken, for much of the game and was forever just short of getting there in time.

[Squire 0]

[quote user="Hairy Canary"]

[quote user="Squire"]I suspect one or more (heaven forbid) of our strikers is carrying an injury. Rumour has it that Holt has problems (back/ankle) and Martin is playing as if he may have a problem (outside being a touch lazy at times). I hope I''m barking up the wrong tree.[/quote]

This is such unfair critisism. He is not lazy! The guy makes very intellegent off the ball runs all the time. Its how he creates space to be in the right place at the right time to score many of his goals. Compare him to Leon who ran his socks off, a-la a headless chicken, for much of the game and was forever just short of getting there in time.

[/quote]

I thought I might hit a raw nerve with someone. We shall have to agree to disagree on this one Hairy. I think Martin is a naturally gifted striker al la Chris Sutton perhaps. Equally good with both feet, improving with his head. But...........!

[The gut 0]

[quote user="Squire"][quote user="Hairy Canary"]

[quote user="Squire"]I suspect one or more (heaven forbid) of our strikers is carrying an injury. Rumour has it that Holt has problems (back/ankle) and Martin is playing as if he may have a problem (outside being a touch lazy at times). I hope I''m barking up the wrong tree.[/quote]

This is such unfair critisism. He is not lazy! The guy makes very intellegent off the ball runs all the time. Its how he creates space to be in the right place at the right time to score many of his goals. Compare him to Leon who ran his socks off, a-la a headless chicken, for much of the game and was forever just short of getting there in time.

[/quote] I thought I might hit a raw nerve with someone. We shall have to agree to disagree on this one Hairy. I think Martin is a naturally gifted striker al la Chris Sutton perhaps. Equally good with both feet, improving with his head. But...........![/quote]

This comes up all the time. He runs about less than most(rightly or wrongly) especially for someone so young. No one questions his talent. Could he be described as having selective work rate, would that satisfy?

[Squire 0]

[quote user="The gut"][quote user="Squire"][quote user="Hairy Canary"]

[quote user="Squire"]I suspect one or more (heaven forbid) of our strikers is carrying an injury. Rumour has it that Holt has problems (back/ankle) and Martin is playing as if he may have a problem (outside being a touch lazy at times). I hope I''m barking up the wrong tree.[/quote]

This is such unfair critisism. He is not lazy! The guy makes very intellegent off the ball runs all the time. Its how he creates space to be in the right place at the right time to score many of his goals. Compare him to Leon who ran his socks off, a-la a headless chicken, for much of the game and was forever just short of getting there in time.

[/quote] I thought I might hit a raw nerve with someone. We shall have to agree to disagree on this one Hairy. I think Martin is a naturally gifted striker al la Chris Sutton perhaps. Equally good with both feet, improving with his head. But...........![/quote]

This comes up all the time. He runs about less than most(rightly or wrongly) especially for someone so young. No one questions his talent. Could he be described as having selective work rate, would that satisfy?

[/quote]

Satisfies me.

[Dutch 0]

[quote user="Jim Kent"]Pete,

Should point out this isn''t my article just copied it from a Yeovil site.

Thought it was funny on how other teams view us and it''s nice to be the team that everyone envies for a change![/quote]

Good work Jim, good article.

[chicken 0]

[quote user="The gut"][quote user="Squire"][quote user="Hairy Canary"]

[quote user="Squire"]I suspect one or more (heaven forbid) of our strikers is carrying an injury. Rumour has it that Holt has problems (back/ankle) and Martin is playing as if he may have a problem (outside being a touch lazy at times). I hope I''m barking up the wrong tree.[/quote]

This is such unfair critisism. He is not lazy! The guy makes very intellegent off the ball runs all the time. Its how he creates space to be in the right place at the right time to score many of his goals. Compare him to Leon who ran his socks off, a-la a headless chicken, for much of the game and was forever just short of getting there in time.

[/quote] I thought I might hit a raw nerve with someone. We shall have to agree to disagree on this one Hairy. I think Martin is a naturally gifted striker al la Chris Sutton perhaps. Equally good with both feet, improving with his head. But...........![/quote]

This comes up all the time. He runs about less than most(rightly or wrongly) especially for someone so young. No one questions his talent. Could he be described as having selective work rate, would that satisfy?

[/quote]The problem is that we actually need a pretty straightforward striker. People call Martin the seccond striker but when you look at how they play it isn''t as straigh forward. Holt seems to like running the channels which means you have to have the other striker in there to get on the end of things. This means that Martin tends to cut a furrow down the centre of the pitch more than anywhere else. But then you can''t have your strikers wandering all over the place.And there is this thing about great players, they never look to be putting much effort in but at the same time they know when to use their energy and when not to. Not that he is as great as Zidane but I recomend that people watch the film of a game in the boots of Zidane. Its quite amazing and insightful. It can be about being economic with your use of the ball and your energy. Martin is an intelligent player, he has played left wing, right wing, various roles as a striker and also in Hoolahans role when he has been subbed off. In each of these he has been creative and in most scored goals. Would he be the same player if he was running around with the same sort of hustle and bustle as Holt? Probably not.

[paul moy 235]

[quote user="Squire"][quote user="Hairy Canary"]

[quote user="Squire"]I suspect one or more (heaven forbid) of our strikers is carrying an injury. Rumour has it that Holt has problems (back/ankle) and Martin is playing as if he may have a problem (outside being a touch lazy at times). I hope I''m barking up the wrong tree.[/quote]

This is such unfair critisism. He is not lazy! The guy makes very intellegent off the ball runs all the time. Its how he creates space to be in the right place at the right time to score many of his goals. Compare him to Leon who ran his socks off, a-la a headless chicken, for much of the game and was forever just short of getting there in time.

[/quote] I thought I might hit a raw nerve with someone. We shall have to agree to disagree on this one Hairy. I think Martin is a naturally gifted striker al la Chris Sutton perhaps. Equally good with both feet, improving with his head. But...........![/quote]

Have to say that I agree with Squire on this one, and IMO this is why Lambert has signed Elliot on loan, in order to keep CM on his toes. I don''t agree that he improving with his heading though, and see this as a serious weakness with Martin at the moment.

[pete_norw 0]

[quote user="pete_norw"]

[quote user="Jim Kent"]You''re top of the league with a five point margin. You''re the top scorers in the division. You''ve got a leading goalscorer who has netted 25 times, and your supporting striker has netted 19 times. Even your midfield play-maker has bagged 13. Your opponents tomorrow have a top scorer with 7 goals, and he''s no longer with the club. So what do you do? If you''re Norwich City, you go out and buy another striker. Ah, how the other half lives. Preston North End''s Stephen Elliott is the man in question. The 26 year old has had a medical at Carrow Road this morning, and now just needs the paperwork processed to allow him to play in tomorrow afternoon''s match against Yeovil Town. Elliott is a former Manchester City youth product, who became a first team regular at Sunderland, scoring 16 goals in his first season at the Stadium of Light, that helped them gain promotion to the Premier League. With Sunderland being a bit of a yo-yo club around that time, he picked up a second Championship medal with the same side a couple of years later. He is a Republic of Ireland international, capped nine times, with one goal to his name. Since leaving Sunderland in 2007, he has played for Wolverhampton Wanderers, and in the summer of 2008, he moved to Preston North End. He has now signed on loan at Carrow Road until the end of the season, thus bolstering a squad that already boasts Grant Holt, Chris Martin, Wes Hoolahan, Cody MacDonald and Oli Johnson as attacking options. Don''t suppose you''d let Yeovil take one of them on loan would you, Mr Lambert?[/quote]

You forgot to include all cup goals that give us a tally of 93 so far, so 100+ is not unexpected, shame we let Cureton go to Shrewsbury, you could have had him  for nothing, mind you he would do nothing other than scare the pants off people sitting to the left or right of the goal,

[/quote]

Sorry should have realised that, but I''m feeling much better now lol