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Marmite Player


dilkie

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Craig Forsyth.

Been part of the furniture for a long time and is permanently overlooked. I loved him from the start, I remember on the opening day of 13/14 he looked a bit like a giraffe on ice skates but put in an absolutely wicked cross that no one got on the end of. I thought if he learned how to defend a bit (he’d played on the wing at Watford), he could be a decent player

Eight years later and he still has his moments but he became one of the best defenders at the club and his crosses are excellent to this very day. It’s no coincidence that pretty much every manager that’s come through here since 2013 (there’s been a few) has started him when he’s been fit. We’ve had so many different types of managers, the Rowett’s/Pearson’s have rated him and the Cocu’s/McClaren’s have too. Here we are in 2021 and despite having an England U21 in Buchanan, Fozzy’s still being started by Rooney.

I honestly have so many good memories of him

-His weird record of scoring at Birmingham away. Scored at St. Andrew’s in 13/14, a slick passing move fished by Fozzy on his weak foot. It was all so completely out of character but then he slipped over as he was celebrating in front of the away fans which was the only way you could tell it was still him. Scored a pretty similar goal there the following season, I lumped on him to score there a couple seasons after and regretted it because he didn’t even cross the halfway line under Rowett.

-Marked Michail Antonio out of the game when he was hot poo for Forest in 14/15 at PP, made him look like a schoolboy at times. It was just a one on one matchup that Forsyth completely had the better of.

-He’s probably put in a billion lethal crosses. Two I really remember are the cross for Hughes’ goal v Brighton in the play offs and the one for Russell’s second v Wolves in a 5-0 thrashing. 

-The header he scored v Preston (?) in Pearson’s only win as Derby manager (?) felt like a real turning point, like we were about to figure it out and start to hit the ground running under Pearson. Never did but still a good goal.

-An absolute SCREAMER against Watford towards the tail end of 13/14, well worth checking out on YouTube if you don’t remember it.

-Seeing him bag a penalty in a shoot out against Man United at Old Trafford. Class.

But what I’ll always remember about Fozzy is how he keeps coming back after every setback, every managerial change, every injury, every slagging off he gets on here/in the stands and keeps proving people wrong. 

You don’t see or hear about him much and he’s still never had a chant but he is clearly one of the most valuable players we’ve had at the club this past decade.

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On 14/12/2020 at 00:18, uttoxram75 said:

People in the early 70's didn't like John McGovern because he wasn't particularly skilful, he weren't fast, didn't score many goals, tended to pass sideways or very short, he was a tich so never won a header, wasn't that great at tackling. England won the World Cup with someone very similar (Nobby Stiles).

Yet Brian Clough made him his first signing at every club he managed and built his team around him. He was a man marker and would follow his managers instructions for 90 minutes, he would drop into a defensive position in front of the back four and snuff out any attacks without fail. Clough knew you had to have a McGovern in your team to allow the more talented players to thrive.

John Eustace is probably a reasonable comparison where he would do the donkey work to give freedom to Hughes and Hendrick to play further up the pitch, making runs beyond the CF, knowing that Eusty would sort it out if the opposition suddenly broke out.

 

Derby fans didn't realize how good McGovern was until he was gone. When you watch old Derby games now on Youtube you can see what a clever player he was. When he went to Leeds they laughed at the thought that he could replace Giles, but McGovern had the last laugh when he won all his medals.

Paul Emson was fast but he never seemed completely in control of the ball. He would race past any defender but the ball would outrun him and go out for a goal kick.

Leighton James was a good player for Derby but we never got the best out of him. I think that was partly to do with the touchlines being so near the stand. It didn't suit wingers. Terry Curran at Forest used to run off the pitch to get around players but at the Baseball Ground he was a fish out of water. I thought Leighton James played better in away games than he did at home. For the money they spent on James they could have bought Dalglish.

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15 hours ago, cannable said:

Can’t believe Clough bombed him out when he did. 

He was on 9 goals by November and then only started twice more.

Should have played him until the January, got him into double figures and sold!

 

Port Vale have made him available for transfer. So we can have him back. 

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