Harte Signs

[rotherwick_royal]

Thought he had a great debut. My only worry is if he comes up against some-one with a bit of pace, but his positioning helps him out there. All in all looks very assured.

[Upper West?!?]

From where I sit, his passing was fantastic. One cross field ball to Kebe was the best I've seen for a season, and he was consistently finding people in good positions.

[loyalroyal4life]

Harte>>>Williams

Please start on saturday

Even though, by most accounts, he's played the majority of his games recently at centre half?

It's going to be interesting to see if he can still do a job at fullback, where pace is usually harder to get by without than at centre half.

See, already had a better game at left back than Williams. Good luck to him getting back in the side. It was good to see Harte use his right foot today when needed. Williams i do not think has even used his right foot to date

[loyalroyal4life]

Williams i do not think has even used his right foot to date

Probably makes more use of his right hand?

Yeah probably

[double d]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL9x4qEk ... re=related

Very nice.

[Wycombe Royal]

Williams i do not think has even used his right foot to date

Bertrand didn't use his for the whole of last season.

[loyalroyal4life]

Williams i do not think has even used his right foot to date

Bertrand didn't use his for the whole of last season.

Think you will find he did actually albeit rarely. Shorey rarely used his as well. Point is Bertrand has pace, shorey had sound technical ability.

Williams has sweet f.a

[Big Foot]

10% of the way there to winning the bet I placed with a m8 that Harte will score 10 goals for us this season

[howser]

This was an Interesting signing for me, I expect McD had a big say in getting him, we now have two very experienced full backs, with a wealth of experience, the knowledge they can pass on to Williams, Kelly and Cummings could be invaluable. Good signing, has settled in really quickly, think he will do well for us, many of the "back from the game" reports suggested he looks like he has been here for ages.

[Ferris]

Two good feet, very composed on the ball and a gr8 pen.

[cmonurz]

Two good feet, very composed on the ball and a gr8 pen.

A bit less underwhelmed now?

There's never much substitute at this level for experience and genuine footballing ability.

[Ferris]

Two good feet, very composed on the ball and a gr8 pen.

A bit less underwhelmed now?

There's never much substitute at this level for experience and genuine footballing ability.

Ha!

[Royalwaster]

Can't wait to see him take a free-kick - didn't have a single one in a good position vs CP if I'm not mistaken? Will be interesting to see if he's retained his ability to score from free kicks - you'd think that was something you don't really lose, no? Was surprised he didn't take any of our corners although Howard's delivery was pretty good.

[specialjon]

This was an Interesting signing for me, I expect McD had a big say in getting him, we now have two very experienced full backs, with a wealth of experience, the knowledge they can pass on to Williams, Kelly and Cummings could be invaluable. Good signing, has settled in really quickly, think he will do well for us, many of the "back from the game" reports suggested he looks like he has been here for ages.

+1

Also comparing Longs penalty to Hartes, Long was lucky, Hartes was exactly where everybody should try to put a penalty, bottom corner.

[West Stand Man]

This was an Interesting signing for me, I expect McD had a big say in getting him, we now have two very experienced full backs, with a wealth of experience, the knowledge they can pass on to Williams, Kelly and Cummings could be invaluable. Good signing, has settled in really quickly, think he will do well for us, many of the "back from the game" reports suggested he looks like he has been here for ages.

+1

Also comparing Longs penalty to Hartes, Long was lucky, Hartes was exactly where everybody should try to put a penalty, bottom corner.

Every penalty that goes in is lucky. Lucky that it was accurate, or lucky that it was hit hard enough ,or .......

Long's penalty was a good one simply because it scored, as was Harte's. Did I not read a study report somewhere that suggested that the best place to put a penalty if you wish to have a high probability of scoring is straight down the middle? That might put into some question your assertion that the bottom corner is where all penalties should go.

Oh, by the way, we won. I am looking forward to winning more games this season. I expect to lose a few too, but I'll simply enjoy the wins as, in my book, 3 pts is better that 0 or 1.

[cmonurz]

Will be interesting to see if he's retained his ability to score from free kicks - you'd think that was something you don't really lose, no?

I don't know - I'm sure Harte will take some or all of our free-kicks around the box, but in terms of not losing that ability, I don't know the stats but I don't think Beckham was (or is) as lethal from that range later in his career as he was 7 or 8 years ago, for example. It's a bit like snooker - no reason Steve Davis shouldn't win the World Championship again, except some of that coordination, and so consistency, from his earlier years has gone.

[rabidbee]

Every penalty that goes in is lucky. Lucky that it was accurate, or lucky that it was hit hard enough ,or ......

Can't agree with that. Unless you think every single pass is also lucky, every save, every run a player makes...

[West Stand Man]

Every penalty that goes in is lucky. Lucky that it was accurate, or lucky that it was hit hard enough ,or ......

Can't agree with that. Unless you think every single pass is also lucky, every save, every run a player makes...

Well, I would put it to you that there is a lot that goes into all of those and that one element of each is a bit of luck.

[rabidbee]

I think Long trapping a ball is more often by luck than design, but having seen the Germans hit the top corner of the goal with all of their penalties in 96, I don't think you can say that a penalty is _always_ scored through luck. A player on top of his game judges the weight and angle to strike a ball and hits it cleanly, whether passing or shooting. It's not the same thing as sticking a leg out and hoping it makes contact, is it?

[Hoop Blah]

It's not luck putting the ball in the right spot, it's ability.

The only time luck really comes into it is if you get a ricochet off the keeper or a post or the keeper gets a decent hand on it. You could argue that the keeper going the wrong way on what appears to be a weak penalty is luck, but it all depends on why the keepers gone the wrong way or when the taker actually hit it.

The most 'unsaveable' penalties are hit hard and high into the top corners. They're also probably those with the least margin for error, but if you've got the ability to do it consistently you won't need any luck to have a good record from the spot.

I thought Harte's was generally a much better penalty than Long's, purely because he hit it with more power and what appeared to be more accuracy into a difficult spot for a keeper to get to.