Battle of the SUFC Players of the 00's: Group D

[manor15]

Group D
16. Dorian Dervite (northernshrimperx)
3. Adam Barrett (Ayrshire Blue)
5. Shaun Goater (Napster)
12. Lee Barnard (MK)

Please ONLY vote for your 2 favourite, or who you regard to be the 2 best players of the group.
northernshrimperx, Ayrshire Blue, Napster and MK please feel free to post messages of why people should vote for your player.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

How about a Poll!!

 

[manor15]

How about a Poll!!

It takes more than 10 seconds!

 

[manor15]

Dorian Dervite

Adam Barrett

Shaun Goater

Lee Barnard

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Dervitte and Goater for me

 

[Napster]

Feed the goat and he will score. Always had a smile on his face, always managed to find the net off his knee, shoulder, wherever. Scored against the Scum. What a send-off. Helped develop the other strikers. International. Loved by other fans.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Feck. This is the group of death!

Dervitte - one of the finest defenders seen at the Hall in recent years... but will his relatively short stay count against him?

Barrett - legendary and inspirational captain, especially in his first couple of seasons where he scored 10 (11?) goals from central defence. But were his powers perhaps on the wane, especially in our relegation season?

Goater - "Feed the Goat"... helped Freddy Eastwood to develop, one of the nicest guys ever to wear the Blue of Southend; but how much impact did he have?

Barnard - fabulous workrate and goalscoring exploits; but did he leave us in the lurch when he jumped ship to the Saints?

Hmm. Going to need to ponder this one further.

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

Very much the group of death this one.

Cast your mind back 4 or 5 years to Barrett's first season with us and he was scoring goals for fun. He was rock solid defensively then aswell.

I always loved it when Barrett scored because of his celebration, he always got the fans going.

Off the pitch he is one of the nicest blokes you could ever meet, had time for everyone to sign autographs and have pictures taken with fans.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Lee Barnard - a hattrick against Orient. Need I say more :)

 

[Napster]

Lee Barnard - a hattrick against Orient. Need I say more :)

Goater - a brace against the scum!

 

[Napster]

From the Guardian, October 2006



* Sport

Goodbye to the Goat who was worth a flock of sheep

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* Simon Hattenstone
*
o Simon Hattenstone
o The Guardian, Wednesday 10 May 2006
o Article history

A weekend for tearful farewells. Highbury, Dennis Bergkamp, possibly Thierry Henry with that magnificent hat-trick-scoring, turf-kissing final gesture. Big Bad Duncan Ferguson at Everton, magenta-toned Steve McClaren at Middlesbrough, and Oxford United relegated from the Football League. (Their former chairman, Bob Maxwell, must be turning in Davy Jones' locker, so to speak.) I even found myself moved by that record-breaking automaton Alan Shearer when he said his ta-tas to Newcastle.

Most moving of all, though, was Shaun Goater's farewell to English football. The Goat was a true role model. He represented the triumphs of hope over expectation, altruism over selfishness, fluky off-the-arse-deflections over magnificent 30-yard chips, education over yobbery - forget Graeme Le Saux, the Goat was the best-spoken player of his generation.

Most famously the Goat inspired the greatest football chant of our age. With the allusive wit of TS Eliot and the sampling genius of Kanye West, Manchester City fans transformed the famous lines from the hymn Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah from "Bread of Heaven/Feed Me Till I want No More" into "Feed the Goat and he will score/ Feed the Goat and he will score." Magnificent.

Goater was always a fighter. He was born in Bermuda, educated in America and, at 17, found himself on trial at Old Trafford. Thankfully he was rejected.

The Goat never had it easy though. He was cruelly named in an all-time Ugly XI at uglyfootballers.com and, while it is true that his ears were of a size which made him unlikely to ever win a Mr Bermuda contest, he soon revealed his inner beauty at the clubs he blessed with his presence - Rotherham United, Notts County, Bristol City, Manchester City, Reading, Coventry City and, latterly, Southend United.

At Maine Road he continually defied expectation. Striker after striker was brought in to replace him (Weah, Wanchope, Anelka and the Blobster) and failed, as he won over the many fans who had disparaged him. His scoring record for Bermuda was phenomenal - 32 goals in 36 games. The Goat is Bermuda's Pele. He even had a national holiday declared in his name.

This year City fans have been thinking a lot about him. Joey Barton's antics reminded us of everything that the Goat is and he is not. We held him up as the anti-Barton. While Barton announced he would consider staying at City if they proved themselves worthy of him and finished high up the league (as if that was independent of his contribution), the Goat always hoped that, if he proved himself worthy of City (or his other clubs), they would ask him to stay.

Now the Goat is to return to Bermuda to work with children and do ambassadorial work. On Saturday I was watching him say his goodbyes to Southend, who had just won the League One title. He held the trophy and grinned like a little boy starting out as fans went down on their knees in supplication.

"Look, look, it's the Goat," I said to my elder daughter, Alix, who is lucky enough to have seen him deflect one or two off his arse in her time.

"Wow! Amazing!" she said, with due awe.

Then something strange happened. I tried to explain to her how he had won the MBE a few years ago for his services to kids in Bermuda. Alix asked what an MBE was. I despise the honours system but I found myself cracking up with emotion as I tried to say "Member of the British Empire". I stopped and didn't answer. Not because I didn't want to but I couldn't let Alix see I was welling up over a bloody MBE. I wasn't, of course. Not really. I was welling up for the Goat

 

[Jedi Shrimper]

Wow, really tough call between 3 great players (Dervitte was never really ours).

Can't leave Barrett out, a true shrimper. Goater just edges out Barney (sorry Barney), his contribution to out title winning season was immense, 11 goals at the age of 35, created plenty of others, a true gent. I will never forget the day the won the title & the Goat's standing ovation.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Have to admit, even I'd vote for my choice 3rd in this! Dervitte, as good as he was, wasn't one of ours.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Wow, really tough call between 3 great players (Dervitte was never really ours).

Can't leave Barrett out, a true shrimper. Goater just edges out Barney (sorry Barney), his contribution to out title winning season was immense, 11 goals at the age of 35, created plenty of others, a true gent. I will never forget the day the won the title & the Goat's standing ovation.

Goater only made 10 more league starts for us than Dervite.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

It takes more than 10 seconds!

Surely you set the poll before the new thread gets added

 

[manor15]

Surely you set the poll before the new thread gets added

The post and thread gets added as you click post thread, which then takes you to the Poll screen

 

[manor15]

Adam Barrett and Shaun Goater progress to the next round