It was Daley and Conlon last year, and Conlon again this season. Who’s next? Thorne? McCall? Graeme Lee?
I can’t believe the boos that greeted Barry Conlon as he came off the bench last Saturday. They guy hadn’t even got on the pitch and people were booing him. It won’t help the player and it won’t help the team. If it’s not constructive, why do it? I know people who think Conlon is a “shit player” and who have said that nothing he does will ever change their opinion of him (which is closed-minded, prejudiced and idiotic), but at least they don’t boo the lad. He’s wearing claret-and-amber, that means he’s one of us for now – so stop the booing and either clap our players onto the field or shut the fuck up.
People will claim that they’ve paid their money so can ‘have their say’ – you haven’t paid the ticket price to boo and abuse people, you’ve paid money in order to watch football. I can understand the team being booed off at half-time or the final whistle following a poor performance, but some fans will boo simply because the score is 0-0 – however well we’ve played. Given that booing players rarely (if ever) has any effect in terms of improving performance then why would any fan who wants the best for his club do such a thing? These are people who haven’t thought things through or they simply aren’t true fans, in my opinion. Boo the ref, boo the linesmen and boo the opposition if you must – leave our lads alone, though.
Apart from anything else, Conlon isn’t as bad as these ‘fans’ make out. He is a big strong lad who can hold the ball up, he is good at harrassing defences and he has a decent, if unspectacular, record in football – including in terms of scoring goals. Not that that is his main strength, but 95 goals in 295 starts in the league is a on-in-three ratio. Not as good as top strikers maybe, who might expect one goal per two games started but still it’s not too shabby! Incidentally, Conlon has made more substitute appearances for City than any other club he’s played for – 25 and counting in the league. He only made one appearance as a sub in league football at Darlington and scored 39 in 114 starts, which is one goal every 2.9 games and like I say, that’s not a bad record. Peter Thorne’s career goalscoring record in the league is 2.4 and Conlon’s is 3.1- there is a difference, but not a huge one. Andy Cooke’s career record is 2.9 and Ashley Ward’s is 3.2, to put this in some sort of context. These are players who give more than goals to a team – they hold the ball up for one thing. Hard work is another attribute that was appreciated by City fans when Andy Cooke was at the club, it should be the same for Conlon. [Stats - http://www.soccerbase.com/]
Having said all that, it is only a minority of fans that boo. There wasn’t a single boo in the section I was in last Saturday, so it was probably a small group of gobby and ill-informed youngsters. I did hear one bloke, though, as he shouted “that’s shit McCall! Shit!” when he made the change and brought Big Barry the Bastard on. I looked round a minute later when Conlon scored but couldn’t see anyone looking sheepish enough to have been that bloke. Either he left, or was cheering his new hero. Go on Barry the Bastard – score a fucking hat-trick next time you start a game and shut these clowns up for good.
Given Barry’s response yesterday with an assist for our first from Boulding followed by scoring our second goal with a header, I wonder if people will get off his case now?
[...] When Zesh Rehman made a bad error that led to the first Macclesfield goal, boos rang out. This was, to an extent, an understandable reaction to the concession of such a goal (although I have to say, I did not join in with the booing myself – I am still of the opinion that you don’t boo your own). [...]