Player 'Zero to Hero'

[The Original Shoe Army]

I know its a bit extreme, and early, to class John Joe OToole as either a zero or hero but in light of his short exile and then return with renewed viguor and good performances has any body played for your club that was almost written off but eventually came good?

John Joes turnaround is such that Mansfield away (14th Feb) has been designated #JJOTDay so fans will be going with long wigs, headbands and possibly parking caravans outside the away end.

 

[Posh Hammer]

George Boyd was branded by the majority of our fans as a "lazy, slow showpony", who will never have the energy or strength to play in League 1/2 when he joined. There were calls to drop him completely. He turned out alright.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Steve Howard for us back in 01/02 when we were promoted from League Two.

We'd signed him late in the previous season as we were relegated and he hadn't done much at all since then. On 15th September we played away at York. We got a penalty, which Howard (who wasn't the designated spot kick taker) stepped up and missed. The ref ordered a retake, so our designated pen taker (and captain) grabbed the ball, but Stevo grabbed it out of his hands and fought off practically the whole team to take it again. Of course he missed and was immediately subbed by Joe Kinnear, who said afterwards that Howard would never play for the club again.

Of course that wasn't true, and Stevo forced his way back into the team within a few weeks (despite intense fan hatred initially) and ended up scoring 24 goals that season, winning the golden boot in the process. He was also our top scorer for the next four seasons, including 18 in our League One winning season and 15 in our first season back in the Championship. We sold him for a million quid to Derby after 103 goals in 228 games.

 

[Leewilson]

Paul Benson. Came to us as a 4th choice striker, only scored 1 goal in his first 16 games and broke his leg. We'd all pretty much written him off doing anything worthwhile. Next season, scored 28 goals as we won the Conference. Then, kept us up in the latter half of the next season after missing the entire first half with injury. Hit a total of 34 goals over the next two seasons to get us promoted to League 1. Then we stupidly sold him on the last day of the transfer window in League 1 and got Bas Savage to replace him. We went down on goal difference.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Jimmy Glass i suppose is our biggest, an utter terrible goalie but of course our most famous Goalie

Richard Keogh is probably the best one i remember, was terrible in his first season and going no where, then ended up right back and while still crap in defence put in these energy passion driven runs which got crowd behind him and that lifted him as a player and he improved drastically which in turn lifted crowd which again lifted him.

 

[DAN_NTFC]

I know its a bit extreme, and early, to class John Joe OToole as either a zero or hero but in light of his short exile and then return with renewed viguor and good performances has any body played for your club that was almost written off but eventually came good?

John Joes turnaround is such that Mansfield away (14th Feb) has been designated #JJOTDay so fans will be going with long wigs, headbands and possibly parking caravans outside the away end.

I am the founder of #JJOTDay Will you be getting involved?

 

[shoddycollins]

Jimmy Glass i suppose is our biggest, an utter terrible goalie but of course our most famous Goalie

Richard Keogh is probably the best one i remember, was terrible in his first season and going no where, then ended up right back and while still crap in defence put in these energy passion driven runs which got crowd behind him and that lifted him as a player and he improved drastically which in turn lifted crowd which again lifted him.

Cleveland Taylor as well I remember having a terrible season when he first signed for us, being booed by the fans, and then winning player of the season the following year.

 

[Seabird]

A player that comes to mind is Beckford , only on loan but was one of the worst players I have ever seen at Carlisle but look what he did later , another was Edwards a legend at County signed a two year deal and was hopeless spent the final year not even in the squad , left and has gone back to County playing in the team in league 1.

 

[LordJord]

I am the founder of #JJOTDay Will you be getting involved?

Are you the lad that had the no John-Joe no party T-shirt? If not then you clearly need to obtain one!

 

[shoddycollins]

A player that comes to mind is Beckford , only on loan but was one of the worst players I have ever seen at Carlisle but look what he did later , another was Edwards a legend at County signed a two year deal and was hopeless spent the final year not even in the squad , left and has gone back to County playing in the team in league 1.

Welcome back Seabird... there are now 6 of us here.

 

[shoddycollins]

A player that comes to mind is Beckford , only on loan but was one of the worst players I have ever seen at Carlisle but look what he did later , another was Edwards a legend at County signed a two year deal and was hopeless spent the final year not even in the squad , left and has gone back to County playing in the team in league 1.

We could probably fill a book with players who were crap when playing for us and then awesome elsewhere (although awesome might be too strong a word for Beckford he did have a period of playing well after leaving us).

 

[Mayor Magic]

Probably the most recent one for us is Nathan Cameron. Last season he was 1 of 4 in one of the worst Bury back lines I've seen, making mistake after mistake we hardly saw him in the squad after last January so he was completely written off by the majority of Bury fans. Was told he could leave in the summer but turned down a few loan moves.

Anyway he found himself back in the team in the League Cup first round game after an injury in defence and he was outstanding, and he's only been getting better all season, arguably our player of the season so far and has recently been made captain.

 

[DAN_NTFC]

Are you the lad that had the no John-Joe no party T-shirt? If not then you clearly need to obtain one!

Nar but word did reach me about that haha. I'm not on twitter but may well have to have a word with him! I'm the one who has put the post on thehotelend and shamelessly covered Facebook with the details haha.