Gary Smith is a man determined not to rest on the laurels of Wednesday night it seems. It has been just two days and we’ve still not recovered from the sheer exhilaration. However, Smiffy seems to have other ideas and has been pre-occupied with the loan market.
Maybe it was when ‘Arry was hailing our “fantastic lads… triffic performance“, there was a part of his penchant for transfers rubbing off on our manager. Two in, two out in the same number of days. And some interesting moves have been before Chesterfield tomorrow.
First in the door was Patrick Agyemang from QPR. One of those strikers who doesn’t seem to score very often. We here at BoroGuide always look at the previous goal return of new strikers coming in to work out what we can expect, but we’re much wiser to assume that’s the be all and end all.
A man known to his legions of QPR fans as Dave – “Trigger, why do you call me Dave? My name’s not Dave. It’s Patrick.” – and someone very much in the big, strong and physical mould, it is intriguing to see how the Ghanian international will fit into Boro’ ranks. But Smiffy will know more about him.
Even if he isn’t prolific in front of goal, Stevenage manage fine without such a player. Carl Alford (62% return) and Steve Morison (58%) were no more able to get Boro’ promoted than Tony Thorpe (0%) or Ben Camara (0%). Last year’s top goalscorers only scored eight goals each. For one of them, his eighth was in the playoff final. Y’see our point – goals when they matters the most.
To the other end of the pitch and the recruitment of Jamaal Lascelles , which raises quite a pertinent immediate question: Is the manager looking to break up the pairing of Roberts and Ashton? We think (and we know you care): No. The manager is just giving himself the option of giving them a rest.
Boro’ will be playing twice a week for most of the next two months and Lascelles will give a right old boost to a crucial part of the team. Any defensive hour of need has usually seen Bossie plucked out of the centre, thereby shifting the selection issue to midfield. But that didn’t normally matter…
… until we heard Phil Edwards had joined Peter Winn on the next train out. This is not something we had envisaged. Edwards has always seemed to be an able performer. If there was a time that we thought we would need him more than ever, it was this playoff hunt. But we got it wrong.
So. Chesterfield. Two new players available. Time for a TEAM TAROT:
