Defensive poll

[ayrisdagger]

Select your favourite. For me its Doey and Robson. Doe is captain and for me anyone that should be guaranteeing themselves in any team is the captain. Play Off Final winner. Can't overlook him. Robson could very well take over from Doe when and if he leaves. Very calm centre back. Definitely future league quality player. I haven't selected Donnellan as I prefer him partnering Boucs in midfield.

[Pondfield Dagger]

Doe? We won 5 games in a row with 3 clean sheets without him, he returned and we have hardly won a game since and conceded a shed load of goals ...

[DevonDagger]

Doe? We won 5 games in a row with 3 clean sheets without him, he returned and we have hardly won a game since and conceded a shed load of goals ...

I concur. I'm a huge fan of Doey, one of my favourite players without doubt. However, he certainly hasn't been at his best recently. Is it two or three red cards he's had this season? Granted the first one at Torquay should never have been, in my opinion.

I can field a possible arguement for starting him for his captaincy qualities, ayrisdagger, but I can't for the fact he's a playoff winner from 2010. By this logic we should also be starting Benson. Whilst I appreciate this is different again as Benson is 37 now, at this level a player can be superb one year, and completely disappear the next - 6 years is a long time so I wouldn't base my current starting lineup on that fact.
That said, I wholeheartedly agree with you on Robson. So I would pair him alongside Donnellan at the moment.

[daggersjeff]

I think we look better set up on the field without Scotty to be honest.

Also disagree totally on this "club captain/pitch captain" scenario. Robson starts with the armband against Guiseley/Bromley, but as soon as Doe comes on as sub he takes it over.
Doesn't make sense to me. Robson is quality and looked at home in the role. Why undermine him like that?

Robson/Donnellan looks the more solid pairing currently, but agree with a previous post that I would like to see him further forward

[leewilson]

We may have won 5 in a row without Doe but it also coincided with the period where we actually got some players back in Howell, Fejiri and Guttridge whilst we also had a not banned Whiteley. Our first defeat came with the Whitely sending off and we've been on the back foot ever since.

I think people have short memories regarding Doe. He did have a dip in form before that red card but it didn't help we were down to the bare bones in midfield either. We got right to the top of the league prior to that with a Doe and Robson/Staunton partnership.

For me, Donnellan, whilst a very good prospect, has to be the one to make way as quite simply he's not our player and he's not doing anything outstanding to maintain his place. He had a fantastic game away at Tranmere but bar that has probably been on par with Shepherd's displays.

Staunton has become better in some people's eyes as a result of not actually playing. He's a good 3rd/4th choice to have but no way should he be a regular starter. No disrespect to him, but if he's one of our two best CBs, there's no way we should be getting promoted. He gets bullied in the air far too easily. As a right back, he's vulernable to the back post and doesn't offer much going forward.

[Mike the Dagger]

We may have won 5 in a row without Doe but it also coincided with the period where we actually got some players back in Howell, Fejiri and Guttridge whilst we also had a not banned Whiteley. Our first defeat came with the Whitely sending off and we've been on the back foot ever since.

I think people have short memories regarding Doe. He did have a dip in form before that red card but it didn't help we were down to the bare bones in midfield either. We got right to the top of the league prior to that with a Doe and Robson/Staunton partnership.

For me, Donnellan, whilst a very good prospect, has to be the one to make way as quite simply he's not our player and he's not doing anything outstanding to maintain his place. He had a fantastic game away at Tranmere but bar that has probably been on par with Shepherd's displays.

Staunton has become better in some people's eyes as a result of not actually playing. He's a good 3rd/4th choice to have but no way should he be a regular starter. No disrespect to him, but if he's one of our two best CBs, there's no way we should be getting promoted. He gets bullied in the air far too easily. As a right back, he's vulernable to the back post and doesn't offer much going forward.

^^ This ^^