Fans calling for Stockdale to be signed after two games where he was barely tested is such skybluestalk thing. You guys.
While I think that Stockdale did look very confident and solid in the only game I saw him play for us, the comments on here still make me laugh. His first kick last week went into touch and he came for a ball in the second half that bobbled off his chest before he retrieved it. Certainly not a perfect performance, with incidents like these ignored. If that was Burge what would have been said? I don’t in any way think that Burge is a great goalkeeper but he has been generally okay over the past two seasons, making the odd howler that all goalkeepers make but, on the whole doing well. Could we do better? Possibly, but does that mean he deserves all the stick he gets off of here? A poster above says he is fourth division or non league at best. Those that voted him League Two keeper of the year probably know more than us on here and disagree.
There are people on here who seem to take against a player and no matter what that player does he will never redeem himself in their eyes. Thinking back over this season and last it is hard to think of a player who has had a totally positive response on here. There is usually someone who thinks they are useless. Just think of the way that Burge, Haynes, Vincente, Biamou, JCH, Shipley, Stevenson, Doyle, Kelly (last season), McNulty, (a good part of last season), Bayliss, Sterling( the start of the season), Chaplin (Craplin to one poster), Bakayoko ( before he had even played in some people’s case) and Hiwula can never do right in some people’s eyes. Only perhaps Willis, Hyam and Jones have escaped fairly lightly. ( although even Jones was written off by some before the start of last season) Some of those players would not have been particular favourites of mine, JCH for example. However, what I don’t get is the glee which some people seem to take in lambasting certain players, Burge being a particular example.
If anyone can be bothered to go and have a look at the comments made about O’Brien after the opening two games last season against Notts County and Grimsby, much the same remarks were being made about him as have been made about Stockdale. Apparently he was so much better than Burge and was the keeper we had been waiting for. After the next two games against Newport and then Yeovil, those opinions had changed. Even at the start of this season however, a number of posters were still saying that O’Brien was the better of the two. (I would think very few feel that way now.)
I criticise players, I have my favourite and those I think are not really up to it. However, I would like to think I was open to watching them improve and can praise them for the good things they do. It is the total negativity to some players, players wearing the badge and the shirt and generally doing their best that I don’t get. I would think that even the worst player we have is still going to be miles better that almost anyone on here. Reading some of the comments about the sort of goalkeeper a poster was, some perhaps have delusions of grandeur.