Weekly review 26/7/24.

2 Responses to Weekly review 26/7/24.

1. Dai Woosnam says:

   July 27, 2024 at 1:41 pm

   Thanks Paul,
   Having watched highlights of all the games, I confess to being pleasantly surprised. But I still expect us to be struggling this coming season… especially if our first Xl is minus Macca and Jak.
   Your reporting as always was scrupulously fair. Just one comment of yours that made me smile…
   … I agree that the long ball from Bagan was a deliberate pass, but I would like you to tell me if a hoof arrives on a sixpence, does it then miraculously also become a pass?
   DW
2. The other Bob Wilson says:

   July 28, 2024 at 6:47 am

   I think the point I tried to make Dai takes me back to Ben Turner who surprised me in his early days with his ability to hit crossfield passes into attacking areas with accuracy. That sentence carries a degree of snobbery because I’m basically saying that Ben’s appearance made me think that he would be just a basic stopper centre half. As time went by, it became clear that Turner was okay, but no more than that at passing out from the back, but he retained that ability to hit accurate diagonal crossfield passes. However, some starting disparaging these “long diags” because they believed they were little more than hoofs upfield – they were never that for me though, they were passes that, sometimes, were very testing for opposing defences.

   To get to your question, I think a hoof is played while the ball is, often, not fully under control and is aimed in a general direction of a team mate with, probably, more hope that the attacking team can win a battle for a second ball. Even if that type of ball forward lands perfectly for a forward who goes on to score, it’s still a hoof in my book – a lucky one that owed much more to good forward play than to the “hoofer’.