Well done Billy Bodin

[londongull63]

Credit where credit's due to Billy Bodin yesterday. He's had some knockers this year - I suppose that price tag heaped extra expectation on him.
He made the goal out of nothing, and twice nearly made the winner with jinking late runs.
He had the confidence to trick Southend's full back and skin him and his cross was inches from Rene's head, but got to Manse who with Labadie did well to get in the box for the goal.
Then Billy twice skinned the right back when he ran at him - full back didn't know whether he'd go left or right as he threatened both ways - once pulling back from the byline when only a last ditch block save Southend, and on the second occasion Southend's keeper made a last ditch save with his legs.
While Billy doesn't have Rene's ball-winning/holding srrength, he can produce moments of class above the average that can crack open a defence and make a goal. It might not work always but running at people he's more dangerous than Rene or anyone else.
Shame he's missing now for two. And Rene got booked again, so is bound to be suspended now as he'll get another booking. As they are so different, I feel we need them both.

[hector]

Hopefully, the club are trying to get a replacement in for Rene before they need him, as it were. This is a good opportunity to forward plan, because it is likely that Rene will get another yellow and then a lengthy suspension.

[SuperNickyWroe]

yeah well done billy - who cares what austrianandy thinks????!!!

[AustrianAndyGull]

yeah well done billy - who cares what austrianandy thinks????!!!

As a matter of fact Super, i gave Billy a lot of credit for recent performances in yesterdays matchday thread so :na: .



I'm not going to comment on the games i haven't seen him in this season but every time i HAVE seen him he has been extremely poor ( as have most of the team ) but all accounts suggest that he is slowly turning a corner and has contributed greatly to our displays in recent weeks. This is all i ask as a bare minimum and although his goals return is laughable, i can see mitigating factors for this including the fact we hardly ever attack so chances are at a premium ( although he does waste a hell of a lot of the chances we create ) and his confidence is low. I believe that should he score then there will be more to follow, all he needs is to see a strike hit the onion bag.

I'm very pleased that Billy is finding some form and that can only be good for us and i hope he has a good run out for Wales whilst he is away on international duty and i also say well done Billy.

Also on the subject of the expectation surrounding his transfer fee. We're in league 2 and we've signed a player for £70 grand, it hardly means he is a total genius footballer does it? To me it's insignificant and it doesn't necessarily make him a better player than someone we got in on a free. Anyone who has raised expectations of a player who cost as little as £70 grand ( although a lot of money for a club like ours ) should be carted off in a white van and dumped in Windermere with no clothes on. It's madness. I expected nothing from Billy but a few goals, a willingness and ability to get at defenders and create opportunities now and again and also have 100% workrate.

I'm not saying i want the goals and skills to be prevalent every week, it's unrealistic, he's a league 2 footballer and will be inconsistent but it was his workrate, at least early season that got my back up. He'd lose the ball and give up and not only that, he would become a virtual passenger in the games and we'd end up looking like we had 10 men. At the very least if you're having a bad game you should make the effort and i accept that of NO Torquay player. His workrate has improved immeasurably and if he can keep that up then he just needs to have more confidence to try things and he also needs that goal. Better things SHOULD follow but obviously i'm not expecting him to be like Lionel Messi. I expected better than we got but if he can work on things during the summer then it could be like having a new signing next season.

For all the stick i have given him on this forum it is in no way anything to do with Billy as a person, it is down to what i reasonably expect from a league 2 footballer regardless of any price tag or raised expectation and those expectations have nowhere near been met. I think most of us would agree if we are honest with ourselves but like i said earlier, the same could be said of most of our squad this season so to single Billy out would be unfair. I'll never boo or hurl abuse at a player at a game as it's counter productive and helps nobody. If i'm honest i have thought this abuse and critcism in my head at games desperate to blurt them out but in a sense, that is what this forum is for. Letting off the steam, having a a bit of a rant and saying sorry afterwards if something you have posted is a little harsh. None of them are immune from criticism however and they'll get criticised when they do something ( consistently ) wrong and praised when they do something right. Consistently is the key word as awful play from a player for weeks on end has no excuse. A defensive error in a game or a missed penalty and it's one of those things and we can shrug it off but crapness every week isn't acceptable. Likewise the Billy situation, we can give praise for a player doing something good in a game or scoring a great goal or working really hard for the team but in isolation it doesn't mean that player has now proven people wrong and is now a good player unless he does it on a relatively consistent basis.

I feel that is why i get criticised for being a bit down on Billy as he might have done something in a game, like win a penalty like in the Exeter game for example but not do too much else and someone will come on here and say well done Billy. I'll come on and say that all he did was win a penalty and that although it was a good piece of play it still doesn't mean i think he's much good. Then the abuse comes my way. If he were to have 2 or 3 excellent games then a couple of sh*t games then that's pretty much par for the course at this level and fine but up until the turn of the year at least he has been truly awful.

Anyway, i hope i've explained myself re: Billy

[ferrarilover]

I think the explanation you needed to offer in BB, Andy, would have been "well, I'm right, so shut up'. Between game one and Exeter away, Billy was inexcusably useless. He couldn't pass, shoot, head, control, tackle, run, chase or generally play the game with any bent whatsoever. Since that night at Sid James's, he has been a different animal. Yesterday, he was back to his mercurial best. The leave 'n' chase which got us our goal was absolutely magnificent.
The one thing which is so glaringly missing from his football brain is shot selection. If he could make better decisions about when to shoot (clue: it's not from 30 yards, on the stretch, to hit a dropping ball on the volley) and when to do something else, he'd be absolute dy-no-mite.

As the OP says, credit where it's due, Bill, you were excellent yesterday, well done.

Matt.

[SuperNickyWroe]

andy, you bite quicker than a chavs bull terrier!

[Bitchie Renault]

Still a bucket load of rubbish continues to be written about Billy, but it can be instantly and rightfully dismissed. Over the last few weeks he's probably been our most consistent player and was a real thorn in the side of Southend yesterday. Made our goal and their full back look silly in the process, laid one on a plate for Mansell who really should've scored and then right near the death fashioned two chances out of nothing to nearly win the game.
If the Plainmoor plonkers and the exiled imbiciles who continue to unjustifiable moan about him just because he cost a fee actually drop their unproven agenda, get off his back and come and join the human race in supporting the guy, then there is a very real chance he could progress onto a much higher level and become a really major asset for us.
Such poor timing that we now lose him for two games, hopefully he'll take his current confidence added to the kudos of a bit of international recognition and come back even more on fire.
Well done Billy, faith is being repaid.

[Jerry]

Between game one and Exeter away, Billy was inexcusably useless. He couldn't pass, shoot, head, control, tackle, run, chase or generally play the game with any bent whatsoever. Since that night at Sid James's, he has been a different animal. Yesterday, he was back to his mercurial best. The leave 'n' chase which got us our goal was absolutely magnificent.

Go to agree with this, Billy's form has turned around completely ever since Lingy has been away. Maybe just a coincidence, but could it be his close personal relationship with Lingy in some way hampered his performances?

[AustrianAndyGull]

andy, you bite quicker than a chavs bull terrier!

I've had to deal with a few of them in my time. ( the bull terriers not the chavs :~D )

They come into kennels totally messed up thanks to these absolute d*ckheads and get worse inside which often leads to stereotypical behaviours and random attacks at people. Fortunately there are enough folk out there who don't see a staffie or whatever and immediately say "kill it because it's nasty" and can work with them and get them rehomed but there are lots of people who think that every staffie is the spawn of satan. It's a dog FFS, treat it as a dog, train it as a dog whilst respecting and understanding it's breed traits and history and respect and care for it. It will cause you no problems. That's all i wanted to say. =D

[SuperNickyWroe]

thanks for that enlightenment andy.

[AustrianAndyGull]

thanks for that enlightenment andy.

Only too happy to help mate!

[brucie]

Absolutely big blow to lose Bodin for two games, particularly as he is only playing for Wales u21 in one game on Friday night.
Its absolutely ridiculous that he is not allowed to play for us tomorrow night.

[Dave]

There is probably any number of reasons why Billy Bodin struggled for form at the early part of this season, in-experience, team formation, the crowd etc, etc.

Been banging the drum for this lad since he joined us on loan, maintained all season that we have not seen the best of this lad, said just wait, he will come good, since the turn of the year the lad has got better and better and indeed will be a big miss, however that is the way it is, and we asa club will have to get on with it, with out him.

I, unlike Brucie do very much trust Macklin to a job for us, the lad has a lot to prove and has been trying injury aside to prove himself all season, deserves a chance.

[Lloyder5]

It was obvious that Bodin was a decent play, just short on form and then confidence and even then he still tried to be purposeful in his play. Glad he is beginning hit form. Perhaps one or two goals towards the end will be crucial.