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Any views on trialist PADDY CREGG who started his career with the superstars at Arsenal before heading north to Scotland. Failing to oust Cesc Fabregas from the first team does not make him a bad player, he has pedigree way above conference level so I would have thought him to be more than an ideal replacement for Mansell.

Phoned a old friend who supports St Johnstone. He tells me the supporters are still in mourning following his release. He was a supporters favourite who they called the 'Big Man' well known and feared by Scottish Premiership players for his tough no nonsense approach. It is said that he was often seen in Tesco's forecourt drinking petrol to fuel up before a match.


GOAL!

Tough to make judgements when we're playing opposition like T&D who aren't really there to allow us to asses the genuine level of our players. Maybe if he gets 45 minutes against Dorchester or one of the better opponents, we'll be able to judge him.

That goal is bloody beautiful. The movement of the strikers both on and off the ball creates so much space that, in the end, the finish is routine and there are actually two players queueing up to stick it in the net. Such simple passing and movement of the football made into something devastatingly effective by intelligent movement of the players. A sight to behold.

According to Merse, on BPIR, he has already been released, with only MacDonald and Alajas (?) - (can't be bothered to look spelling up) retained so far.

hector wrote:According to Merse, on BPIR, he has already been released, with only MacDonald and Alajas (?) - (can't be bothered to look spelling up) retained so far.

Slightly worrying if that indeed proves to be the case. Particularly so when you consider the enthusiastic noises being made (even as recently as Monday!) by Greavsie over a number of weeks about the quality of players who had agreed to come and join us for pre season on a trial basis. What we don't know for certain, of course, is how many of those that actually turned up were the ones he was referring to a few weeks back when he made those comments. We do know though that both Ajala and the (now gone?) O'Achie were named early on but of the rest who knows? Personally I liked what I saw of Ajala, but there will be sterner tests to come for him if he does stick around.

I kind of doubt that Angus MacDonald was in his early plans as at that stage he would very much have been part of Salisbury's plans I would imagine. It would only have been as things have "unravelled" at Salisbury during the close season that he would have come to his attention. I do recall George Pilkington, an experienced centre half who was released by Mansfield, being named as a potential target, maybe he was one who was in his plans, but if he was then we missed out on him as he signed for Macclesfield a couple of weeks back.

Anyway, no matter, from what I saw of the trialists that did turn up (the "mystery striker" has been revealed as Courtney Baker-Richardson) the only one I am disappointed to see leave would be Paddy Cregg as it was clear that he had some real quality about him. Of course, it may well be that it wasn't our decision to end the trial, it may be that the player has had a better offer elsewhere or that we simply couldn't afford him. Either way, we certainly need to strengthen that area (centre mid) both in quality and numbers now having seen Mansell, Lathrope, Labadie, Craig and Cooper all depart this summer.

Given that Greavsie had gone on record as saying that he had three experienced midfielders coming in and he hoped to sign at least two of them ... it does rather appear that things aren't going quite to plan, but that doesn't mean to say that we might not pick up some quality replacements as there are still an awful lot of out of work footballers out there.

If true and Cregg has gone then this will be the most worried (and gutted!) I have been all pre-season.

The worry is that this suggests we have little or no budget remaining and we can only recruit if the loss of those listed occurs (which realistically is never going to happen!).

We currently have a central midfield partnership of Young and Harding with a back-up option of Chaney. That would be about as tough tackling as the UN.

We need ( bare minimum!) a CB, a LB and x 2 central mids.

I hope merse is wrong on this - I really do!

The teamsheet on Saturday will make interesting reading.

http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 43883.aspx

CH states we still have 9 trialists at the club and they will be with us for at least a week before any decision is made on there future. So this would suggest that Cregg has not left.

9 trialists is more than we originally thought. We know the names of 7 of them and I have been told by a friend of mine who is one of the youth coaches that Karl Baker is training with us so that would make 8. Anyone know who number 9 could be?

I hope this is the case Mark as Cregg sounds exactly what we are missing in midfield.

Also states ideally he wants to add 4 which seems stange as we have wingers and strikers also on trial.

By my math we need (minimum) a LB, CB and pobably 2 CM (assuming we cannot move Tonge on and we sign Cruise as cover for LB).

Would anyone care to list the trialists?
I'm getting a little confused... I thought Courtney Richards and Courtney Baker-Richardson were one in the same!
Or are they?
Thank God Karl Baker isn't called Courtney.

Merse on BPIR suggests that Pea and I and Chunkygull are all the same person, so I'd take what he and his pork pie hat say with a pinch of salt the size of Uluru.

Matt.

ferrarilover wrote:Merse on BPIR suggests that Pea and I and Chunkygull are all the same person, so I'd take what he and his pork pie hat say with a pinch of salt the size of Uluru.

Matt.

but Matt........you are !!!!!

Bloggy wrote:Would anyone care to list the trialists?
I'm getting a little confused... I thought Courtney Richards and Courtney Baker-Richardson were one in the same!
Or are they?
Thank God Karl Baker isn't called Courtney.

Angus MacDonald
Courtney Richards (my research has now discovered he is a 20year old Brighton player)
Courtney Baker-Richardson
Paddy Cregg
Duane O'Achie (if he is still about, bearing in mind he didn't play midweek)
Tobi Ajala
Karl Baker
Godfrey Poku (again, not sure if still about)
plus one more, allegedly

Would I be right to be a little bit excited about a potential midfield of Poku, Cregg and Young?

ferrarilover wrote:Merse on BPIR suggests that Pea and I and Chunkygull are all the same person, so I'd take what he and his pork pie hat say with a pinch of salt the size of Uluru.

Matt.

Yeah, he's a real top, smart bloke, very reliable. Without knowing anything about me, he had the bloody nerve to imply I'm a racist, then when he was called on it and proved wrong he apologised and said lets draw a line under it and then promptly banned me from his website. :-o

Yeah, I would really put stock in anything he suggests.

What's BPIR?

Beyond the Penn Inn Roundabout, another fans' website co-ordinated by Merse; a site (not for the faint-hearted) run for 'exiled' Gulls fans, mainly in theSouth East.