Joel Porter on for Barker now.

Hope its not a bad one but it sounds like it could be judging by the commentry.

pity, we may actually start scoring some goals now.

Give order grave man!

It sounded a bad one let's hope it's not too serious.

I hope its not serious too, im merely saying that I reckon we will score more goals without him

So by taking our top scorer off we might start scoing goals now?!

Explain...If you can.

grave, that's shyte. don't care whether we're scoring or not, barker is one of us and deserves a bit more fookin respect. grow up.

the fact that he is scoring regularly makes your comment redundant, as well as offensive.

I hate to admit this but I agree with Aido.

How is what I said offensive?!

Like I said, I reckon we would score more goals without him. Its a pity he is injured but it may turn out for the best.

If thats offensive then you want to get a grip

no mate, you want to have a look at yourself, when your attitude to our top scorer being possibly seriously injured is "good".

and he SHOULD be top scorer given that he starts every game AND takes the penalties. Im pretty certain that Porter or mackay would have done better than barker had they played every game and being given the penalties to take. Wilson has shown that he is against dropping Barker, this is the only way that we can try other better options.

I dont want to see any of our players injured but at the end of the day, I dont rate Ritchie Barker and I reckon we are a lot more mobile and creative without him. If you disagree then fine, but dont come out with this 'offensive' shite.

I dont think he quite meant it like that, I dont care who scores as long as we get a foooking win, porter brings us a different dimension to our game, lets hope it works tonight!!!

1. Barker top scorer, penalties or no penalties, why do people keep getting on his back? if you can DO better why dont u ask for a trial? if we stay UP itll be down tof RICHIE BARKERS goals along with browns aswell, get behind the guy

I never said I could do better, I said I reckon there are other players in the squad who can do better. The people on this forum are so thick, it really is not that difficult to understand

i agree with you, barker wouldn't be my absolute first choice striker, but to suggest that it's "good" that he's injured is cobblers grave.

he is a pools player who sweats blood in the cause (unlike some others), and we'd be up shit creek without his goals. i'm delighted we've won, and over the moon for mackay, but like i said before, barker is one of our own.

I said something similar to Grave, when barker went off. I'm not saying I'm glad he is injured, but if he was unavailable for the rest of the season, then maybe we would see the team that most of us seem to want to see. We would be more creative with the team that spent most of the time on the pitch tonight. Barker would be a much better option coming off the bench for the last 20 when we are struggling for a goal, as he proved by scoring 2 against Crewe coming on late in the match.

I also understand what he was getting at..............now that Barker is injured he can't play..............therefore the point being made was this is an opportunity to change the way we play through the adversity of losing Barker.

What he said was we might start scoring goals now. That sounds a bit daft considering it's our top scorer injured but time will tell when we have the chance to change our style of play.
Don't give me the usual crap about he's only top scorer because he plays most games and takes all penalties, thats just daft talk, if he didn't play then obviously he wouldn't score goals. As for penalties, does anyone remember the start of last season when we couldn't stick a penalty away in about 7 or 8 attempts? I'm thankful we have a penalty taker in the team especially when the teams playing poor, you need to take the few chances you make.

There's nothing in there thats offensive though.

The injury could be a blessing in disguise, as we'll now actually see how we do perform without him.

It's not just the goals though is it. When Barker plays we are so one dimensional. All of the tactics are built around getting the ball to a player who is not mobile enough for this level. oh yes he tries hard and gives everything but he cannot cut it against the better defenders in this league. The penalties issue is a genuine point, when you take a penalty it takes bottle and he's got plenty of that. But there's no defenders to get past or a neccesity to drop a shoulder and go past your man using your pace. Apart from a couple of knock ins, all Barkers goals have come from the spot or against the poorer teams in this league.

Wilson's tactics so far have been to built attacks to get the ball to a player who can't do much with it.

I say again; Barker is an excellent fourth division centre forward.

Jesus, I really threw the cat amongst the pigeons there didnt I!



I still stand by my original opinion, we ARE a better team without Barker certainly at league 1 level, and I do feel that Mackay or Porter would have scored more goals than Barker had they played as many games and took the penalties. Im sorry he is injured but I reckon there is a major plus, which is that we will see better football and score more goals. This gives us opportunity to see if an extended Mackay/Porter partnership could work.

Also a number of people said that it is crazy that I think we will score more now that our top scorer is injured. If you cant understand this argument (taking into account factors such as us maybe changing our style of play, replacing barker with someone more mobile, faster, less one dimensional and to be honest someone who misses fewer easy chances) it is pointless me even trying to explain as im sure you wont have the capacity to understand.

I am fairly sure that Moore was outscoring Barker for sometime this season and when you consider that Moore has never been a prolific goalscorer and often played on the right wing, it really does not say much for Richie Barker does it.

I dont like to see our players being injured but Im sure this will be a blessing in disguise if Barker is out for a few weeks.

I quite like the idea of playing those two up front, it gives us the raw pace of Mackay and a big strong target man in Barker. As people have rightly said, Barker isn't the most mobile of forwards but he has done an excellent job for us this season. Having said that I am a massive fan of Porter so if Barker is unavailable then it should definitely be Porter and Mackay up front for the remaining games.

On a side issue - Barker's 16 goals this season have come against these teams:

Luton - 3 (2 of which were penalties)
Doncaster - 1 (which was a penalty)
Oldham - 1 (which was a penalty)
Carlisle - 1
Nottingham Forest - 1
Brighton - 1
Gainsborough - 2
Morecambe - 1
Crewe - 2 (1 of which was a penalty)
Southend - 1 (which was a penalty)
Port Vale - 2

Total - 16 (6 of which have been penalties)

Isnt bad for someone who gets as much unjust grief as he does in the town end

i think most of the grief is aimed at our style of play
which hopefuly now will change but dont bet on it

It probably is aimed at the style of play mainly but the few idiots annoy me because he tries harder than a lot of our players. I dont think Mr Wilson has exactly shone with his tactical nous this season!

a definite fading light that should be extinguished sooner rather than later
as the snowman said is it too much to ask to be entertained

Spike at centre forward on Saturday?