Marcus Stewart & City's Strikers

[BrotherErnieFromBarrowGurney]

Being one of the few who felt underwhelmed at the signing of Marcus Stewart, I thought I would wait and see what kind of impact he would have on City's season. In the past, old Premiership players who dropped down to Div 3 have had mixed success, look at John Salako at Brentford and McAteer at Tranmere.

Ten or so games in I am still waiting for any kind of impact at all. Sure he seems to try hard, but his lack of pace, constantly getting found offside and lack of goals have made a major contribution to our poor start.

I'm not really sure what the answer is...we have Bridges waiting in the wings who looks far more skillful and aware but he has only scored one goal too, and that was against Barnet! Our other forwards are Brooker (class but injured), Gillespie (never scored at this level) and very promising youngster Cotterill who we seem to prefer to use as sub.

My feeling is that if we are to be any kind of an attacking force this season (and our lack of goals is one of the main reasons we can't win a carrot), we need to get someone with pace on loan quickly. I heard Wayne Andrews might be available from Crystal Palace.

Despite two ex-Premiership strikers in the squad, only Brooker is good enough so far this season and he can't do it all on his own.

Ernie

SoWWoBC

[RedM]

Marcus has talent and has proved himself at a level that almost all of our current squad will sadly never experience.

I too was caught up in the hype , and i'm sure marcus was aswell. I think he has become increasingly frustrated with the lack of service that he gets and frequently drops back into midfield looking for the ball. He has never been a player with great pace and this seems to be getting to him. He looks tired, jaded and not like he is enjoying his game at the moment. I think he thought he would just walk into the team and settle and it's quite a big shock for many that he hasn't.

I think the manager should forget who he is and pick the best strikers available for a particular match, it may be Gilly & Cotterill and stewart & co will have to sit on the bench. He probably won't be happy but he should be professional enough at this stage in his career to accept this?

[mercury]

A lot of our lack of scoring problems come from lack of service. If you watched Stewart on Saturday, yes, he was caught off-side a few times, but the other times, he's running, holding his line, waiting for the through ball, which would cut there defense, only to find our not so bright midfield turn around and pass it back to a defender to lump upfield.

Our wide men would struggle to put a cross on a spot the ball coupon at the moment, let alone hit one of our front men, until any of our front men get a decent service, we will not score goals.

[BrotherErnieFromBarrowGurney]

I have a feeling that he has some type of Peacock clause in his contract which states that if he is fit, he will play. Bridges wasn't quick enough to do the same thing. I agree with you that he seems to be finding it much harder than he expected and is getting very frustrated. His early booking in the Blackpool game seemed a sign of this.

[tinman-is-god]

His early booking in the Blackpool game seemed a sign of this

That looked more to me as the sign of a terrible ref!

[Guest routabout]

That looked more to me as the sign of a terrible ref!

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Yeah, that was obviously my fault. I said he looked like a lucky omen, having officiated in two wins for us, previously. Kiss of death and all that.

[BrotherErnieFromBarrowGurney]

As my old Latin teacher always used to say, if you play in the 3rd Division, you get 3rd Division referees my lad!