Thursday, 10 May 2007
Finders keepers
And thanks to Iain Dowie we did, unfortunately it was only temporary. Time will tell if Pards makes Darren Randolph his number one choice next season, or if the Irish lad even gets to play at Anfield on Sunday.
And thanks to Iain Dowie we did, unfortunately it was only temporary. Time will tell if Pards makes Darren Randolph his number one choice next season, or if the Irish lad even gets to play at Anfield on Sunday.If we'd stayed up I think the board would've pushed the boat out to try to sign Carson, and I believe he would have snapped their hands off. Rumours of a £6m fee would have been in reach with the Premier League's filthy lucre in our back pocket but not so in the fizzy pops and lets face it, Scotty deserves to be playing at the highest level and that does not mean Liverpool's reserves.
Before joining us on loan in August Carson had played just 16 1st team matches, 9 of which were on loan at Sheffield Wednesday at the tail end of last season. He kept 5 clean sheets and helped the Owls to stave of relegation. If only he'd tried harder for us eh?
We haven't had an awful lot of luck with loan players down at the years. Mike Small or Kenny Achampong anyone? I liked Alan McDonald, Costa was good, Paul Kitson scored a very enjoyable winner at Palarse once, Lee Power and Neil Heaney played a small but significent part in our history, but then Scott Carson took being on loan to us to a whole new different level.
Carson is just 21 but that head with the gapped tooth grin sits on very grown up shoulders and Addicks will never forget what he did for us this fateful season. He let in 59 goals and up until February hardly knew what a clean sheet was, however without him our goal difference would have been off the charts. He saved us time and time again and if only he'd had shown El Khak how to pass a ball.
The best thing though was his commitment to the cause. From the minute he showed up at Sparrows Lane he believed he was an Addick, and in our eyes he was, a very honourable one at that. He was a true professional and everything that he did on the pitch and everything that came out of his mouth was class.
My only regret was that I think Pards should have held back Hughes and substituted Scotty towards the end of the game for Randolph so the Valley could have shown him how much he meant to them.
Good luck Scotty, you will always be one of us.
¶ 20:39
