Whilst Raya did an interview some point after leaving us, where he thanked mighty Southport for developing him during his 4 month spell there, and I believe said it was the most important part of his development, and made no mention of Ben Benson.

Aye, it's only up to one person to give him a chance - the manager. And up to one person (Pears) to take that chance. Pears has frankly had far more of those chances than he has deserved, and fluffed the majority. Given how poor he has been, frankly he is lucky he hasn't been booed at games. The fans have been surprisingly relaxed about him. (Not that I agree with booing your players, but football fans be football fans)

I don't think he is one of those keepers. The rumours around the time he signed his extension were that he wanted assurances over his playing time first. He has had first team football since a fairly early age with Boro, I don't think he intends to be a backup at this stage of his career. Which really is the only use I can see him serving to us or any other team in this league. Most League One sides are unlikely to pay what we paid (again, believed to be more like 400-500k) for a goalie.

The fans have seen him get all those chances and have had plenty of opportunity to make our minds up and see that he is shit, and should be cover at best. If he had impressed enough everybody would have forgotten about the old pals act. Do you honestly think we would care about that if he had shone for us? There was a preconception, sure, but the problem is Pears has done nothing to dispel it. When he did play well for a little spell, everyone eased off him and many of his long term critics (including me) gave credit where it was due. Believe we paid about 500k for him actually.

Au contraire, Pears has been given many chances and failed most of them. Burnley goal not particularly his fault though. A top class keeper may have prevented it, but I don't expect a top class keeper for us at this level. I mean, he does kinda move out of the way of it, but Foster had so much of the net to aim at, you can understand a keeper starting to move as he has a lot of goal to try and cover. Overall though, he simply isn't good enough. And it's not a snap judgement, or some weird pointless bias, it's from watching him play for years.

We must have watched different interviews, because I didn't get that impression at all. He asslicked the owners, made feeble excuses for our piss poor spend, and said nothing of any insight or interest. The only part I can agree with is Waggot and Suhail are missing football brains and ambition.

I'm much happier if they take away the gnawing, crushing pain and sense of injustice that can last for a week, of when a bullshit decision costs us a game of football. I'll happily lose the spontaneity of instant gratification and certainty to lose this too.

Replaced by celebrations when a decision that went against us got overturned.

Time for Ben Benson to prove his worth...

If we don't sell I still think we'll get one or two loans. Maybe stretch to getting Germain since he'll be free. A surprise win in court for Venkys might rob them of their excuse and shame them into putting a mill or two in, but I think the most likely outcome there is probably another case postponement.

Had a feeling this guy was going to become a cult hero ever since his interview where he said 'Mr Shearer'.

Won't be a long wait.

Yeh I love when millionaires tell people to spend more.

3 times in the league and once in the cup. Looks like he's played the full game each time, at least in the league. For what it's worth, Sofascore has given him ratings of 6.9, 6.3, 6.9 in the league. Interestingly, his best rating was 7, in a 2-1 defeat to QPR in the cup, the highest level of opposition he's faced. The 6.3 was in a 4-4 draw with Blackpool, I doubt any defenders on the pitch came out with credit from that one! Plenty of stats here if you're interested: https://www.sofascore.com/player/connor-oriordan/1133480

Technically there is a bit more difference than that - Leo was 24 and had a Sweden cap (they're ranked 29th currently) and Toth is 27 tomorrow and has zero caps (Hungary are ranked 32nd). Wahlstedt had better international credentials at roughly 3 years younger. Of course, this is all relatively meaningless, but worth pointing out to anyone who wants to say he is an international keeper (which he isn't yet despite making some squads) and therefore isn't a gamble, when someone with better international credentials failed here recently. You're right about mentality being key. Half of being a keeper happens in the mind, even moreso than other positions I'd say. Focus, confidence, communication and ability to read the game are absolutely essential. The physical attributes, raw talent and reflexes can only take you so far before you're found woefully out of position, or getting to something too slowly because your low confidence has slowed your decision making.

In the league, he has 3 assists in 224 minutes of football, so one every 74.6 minutes. In the cup he has 2 goals in 92 minutes of football, so one every 46 minutes. Total goal contributions across both competitions is one every 63.2 minutes. I'm not sure where 58 minutes has come from, even if you count it as 4 assists as discussed above, that changes the average to 52.6 minutes in all comps, or 56 minutes in just the league.

I keep seeing him described as a Hungarian international, but as far as I can see he has 0 caps. He has played his entire career in a weak league. He's a gamble, he's unproven at this level. Hopefully he's a gamble that pays off.

Brad is still alive so he may have trouble being his reincarnation! Hell if he's even half the keeper Brad was we'll be in a good way.

Not sure him supporting a Manchester club and being from Manchester means he won't have any bias to a Manchester club. Maybe Altrincham hate Manure, I dunno or care, but if they do then that's also a bias. IMO a ref shouldn't have any geographical or supporter connection to the clubs involved, including rivalries. Not saying this chap is biased, and I didn't watch that game, but just seems the best way for avoidance of doubt.

Manure were clearly bribing the refs back then, nobody can convince me otherwise, so perhaps. But I doubt they would have been as blatant. It's much easier to say 'oh the ref and linesman missed it/saw it differently' than it is to say 'the ref, linesman and a whole panel of officials missed it/saw it differently after watching slow-motion replays from numerous angles, the same ones you saw, and after using line technology'. Of course we still get mistakes and controversies, but if one club was to consistently get far more of them in their favour than the others, for such a sustained period, with such oversight in place, I think there'd at least be serious investigations.

Whilst the true theft of the century from Maradona would never have stood and we'd have reached the semi final. Since Argentina won it, perhaps that would have been us and we wouldn't have been waiting since 66 for a trophy. No bullshit disallowing of Lampard's goal against Germany. Manure wouldn't have dominated the 90s as much, because the amount of decisions they got in their favour were an utter farce. We may have even won another title. No disgusting Tevez goal. We would have beat the Dingles yesterday. See, for everything we would have lost, we would have gained something else, and then some I'd argue, as we have had a lot more BS decisions against us than for us, for my money. And both categories would have been fairer.

Yep, in my junior playing days I think I only ever got 3 yellow cards (not sure how, since I was pretty full-on in the tackle, but I tended to win it when I went in, and I think they're a bit more lenient with cards at junior level and back then). Only one of them was for a foul. One was for making a 'wanker' sign as I walked away from a ref, and the other was for jokingly going 'whooooooaahhh' as a penalty taker ran up to shoot 😂 He missed, ref booked me and let him take it again, he scored.

Huh, really? In that case, Pears looks a lot more like Makhtar Gueye than I realised. He was also woefully out of position and wearing the wrong kit, and I'm not sure who that bloke wearing the goalie kit that punted it upfield to him is.

It was borderline impossible to get the ball to Weimann for the tap in, the angles were restricted by the time he reached the ball. Weimann's decision to have a pointless hissy fit about it instead of staying alert and potentially being able to nick a goal when the ball bounced back to his area was a far, far worse decision. The shot was weak though.

Our goal would have stood if there was VAR.