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Poke is largely responsible for us still being a football league club. I saw well over half of our away games last season where we were under the cosh for long periods and the amount of times he kept us in the game was incredible. Those points lost if Bevan (although a good keeper himself) was in goal would mean we would be lining up against Kidderminster in a couple of weeks.

People forget that when Rene Howe misses a chance for example, it usually means Poke has to make at least one maybe more really decent stop in order for the status quo to be maintained yet somehow Rene is the bees knees and Poke is described as a 'run of the mill' league 2 keeper. So unfair and after Olejnik I reckon there hasn't been a huge noticeable gap in our goalkeeping which is a credit to Poke.

Strange that you see a stark contrast between 'Pokes saves' and 'Renes goals' Andy? Because you can be sure we'd be in the conference without them too - being as he was, the only player in our squad for the majority of the season that had the first clue where the goal was.

AustrianAndyGull wrote: So unfair and after Olejnik I reckon there hasn't been a huge noticeable gap in our goalkeeping which is a credit to Poke.

There is a pretty wide gap though. Poke is an average L2 keeper, for example he's good at shot stopping but he is pretty poor at commanding his area. Bobby's all round game was far better than Poke. Saying that, I'm delighted we do have Poke really as he's probably one of the next best keepers I've seen us have after big Bobby.

remember when pokey first came and we thought he was the bees knees?
the he bogged off and we were sweating like austrainandygull has been for the last three weeks - and we got scotty - he was seen as a fair replacement.
then scotty legged it, and we all thought sh*t!! then bobby arrived to save the day......

now we have pokey back and has someone has said he has saved us on numerous occasions - now hes "less than average"
give me pokey in goal over most of the L2 goalies anytime.....
how fickle some posters are on here.....

I'm not fickle, I'm just saying that the gap between Bobby and Poke is a big one.

Yeah, but, the gap between Bobby and anybody we could get is massive.

Indeed. That doesn't prove me wrong though

Fonda wrote:Strange that you see a stark contrast between 'Pokes saves' and 'Renes goals' Andy? Because you can be sure we'd be in the conference without them too - being as he was, the only player in our squad for the majority of the season that had the first clue where the goal was.

I know Fonda and many months ago i said just that but in comparison, Poke has to make a far greater number of stops and saves per game than Rene has opportunities to score therefore he could be considered more important as if Rene scored from his only chance (which to be fair on quite a few occasions last season this was the case) then Poke has to keep out numerous chances from the opposition, not just one, to enable us to win the game. If Rene was scoring 4 goals from 5 chances in a game then maybe that would put him on a par with Poke but he wasn't. Rene didn't have to perform in EVERY game for us to stay up but i reckon Pokey did.

Rene didn't have to perform in EVERY game for us to stay up but i reckon Pokey did.[/quote]
Hell, Rene didn't even PLAY in every game cos of all his bookings !!!!!!

I think it is unfair to say that if Bevan (a good keeper) was in goal we would be lining up against Kiddiminster in a couple of weeks. It's all if's and buts saying that had Pokey let in a few more and Rene had scored a few less then we would be down. Any team could make that argument irrespective of what league position they are playing for because over the course of a season the margins are so tight. For quite a few years now we have been lucky to have some quality keepers, Bevan, Bobby and Pokey, who have all been there for us when we have been under the cosh. It's not really a position we have to had worry about too much, maybe that's why the importance of our keepers has possibly been overlooked on occasion. When all is said and done we have a quality keeper in Michael Poke.

mmm.... wonder where Simon Raynor is at the moment?

Poke :

Shot stopping - excellent
Dead ball kicking - good
Other kicking - room for improvement
Command of box from crosses - room for improvement
Quick release of ball to outfield players - room for improvement
Communication with outfield players - room for improvement

Overall assessment - room for improvement



Then there's the goalkeeper coach :

Overall assessment - room for improvement

Maybe we dined out for too long on bobby?

I do agree that last time poke was here he was good - in the BSP.

He has fallen short since. He is an ok shot stopper but simply does not inspire confidence in me, so what must his centre halves think in front of him? Our achillies heel is the last ten mins of games where we invite pressure, capitulate, and very often concede. A strong commanding, vociferous goalkeeper who comes and clears up avoids that and gives confidence to defenders - and I don't believe that Poke is up for that.

Added to that is the fact that Ricey is poor, I don't know if he has perked up in ps games but he isn't a real option should poke be injured. We are pinning our hopes on poke not getting injured - and he's injured........

Stevens and Oastler impressing at Aldershot.

IMO there is a lot of bull written here.

Poke is one of the best keepers in the division - FACT.

Stevens has now left Aldershot