Views from the Sieve

Really hope this lad stays on. If anyone has proved their worth and importance to the team, its him. Could work on decision making, but at this level you cant have it all. Does he have a deadline???

Could do with a left back who can really deliver a good cross with his left foot,Widdowsons got loads of effort and energy but his crossing never gets above chest height

Considering that 95% of his crosses are blocked you'd think that he'd consider trying to block a cross at the defensive end...
Cannot say that I agree with the original post at all, but we've all got our own opinions.

To be fair, he has proved his worth and importance.
It's just that what he's proved is that he doesn't score particularly highly in either.

He's no Griffiths but I rate him more than femi, nothing special but a bit more reliable and consistent so I'd be happy for him to stay.

No replacement in yet so hopeful he will stay... but he's far from a certain starter this season if there are other options out there

I hope he re-signs and I don't think anyone can complain if he does. Good experienced player and is pretty consistent. I've said it before and I don't know how someone who played almost every minute in a fantastic season is deemed to be not very useful. He may not set the world alight but you can't have a team full of Whitelys and JMDs. There are probably more worse left backs in this league than there are better than Widdowson.

It's a shame the club website didn't properly maintain all stats as I'd be curious to see how many assists he got, I do remember him getting some though. But when we had such quality in midfield we didn't really need our fullbacks to be as attacking-minded.

NBDag wrote:I hope he re-signs and I don't think anyone can complain if he does. Good experienced player and is pretty consistent. I've said it before and I don't know how someone who played almost every minute in a fantastic season is deemed to be not very useful. He may not set the world alight but you can't have a team full of Whitelys and JMDs. There are probably more worse left backs in this league than there are better than Widdowson.

It's a shame the club website didn't properly maintain all stats as I'd be curious to see how many assists he got, I do remember him getting some though. But when we had such quality in midfield we didn't really need our fullbacks to be as attacking-minded.

He was consistent. Consistently average at best.
He wasn't good enough either defensively or going forward throughout the entire season. If he was stronger at one of them he'd be worth having.

Defensively he makes the same mistakes over and over.
The free header back into the middle of the pitch to an opponent is a regular occurrence.

Going forward he'd have a couple of assists but nowhere near enough for a team that scored as much as we did. His crossing is awful, and he often kills our attacks with either poor passes or by slowing everything down. And his throws ins are generally poor as well - that's basics for a full back.

Wilst Widdowson is not the best at either attacking or defending, I dont feel he is as bad as he is being made out to be either.

I dont think there is huge quality in the left back position in this league other than Habergham at Lincoln cant remember one who i thought stood out

has now joined Leyton Orient on a two-year deal.

Who do we want in then? Remi Sutton has looked good whenever I've seen him play at Thurrock but it might be too much of a jump. Anyone else?

I'm sure John has someone already lined up. They must've known for a few weeks that he was still up in the air with a decision.

Have to say I wasn't his biggest fan and always thought that he looked a bit out of his depth.

Admittedly each time I saw him last season he didn't always have the support of the left winger going backwards; but what disappointed me was his output going forward.

Not the greatest crosser and often put in bags of effort with very little end result.

Hopefully whoever comes in will be able to whip in low crosses and really exploit the deadly movement we will have around the box next season with Whiteley and Cheek.

Wish him well, but not the greatest loss.

For me our formation for a lot of last season was self defeating. Full backs never got any help at all. And only really Williams looked capable of stopping someone one on one.

This season I can't see much changing as the two earmarked for those roles in Nunn and Pennell are slow as arseholes.

I'm half pleased he's gone. Didn't rate him really and an opportunity to look around for a decent left back

I wish him well at Leyton Orient.

Let's see who might be coming in as a replacement.