RFC Strikers - A Potted History

[Baines]

Ah, the Billy Whitehurst - Steve Moran front line - classic! Other than the Wembley trip, that was an awful season! (It's also when I started going to games on a regular basis - nope, I don't know why either)

Yep. Even when a Moran dry spell ensured clean sheets galore, he could always rely on Whitehurst to do the business for him.

[ankeny]

Lets not forget these mere mortals who I also witnessed playing: Robin Friday, Billy Whitehurst, Steve Moran, Les Chapple, Percy Freeman, Gary Heale. What some characters and memorable goals they scored!!

Anyone with a football brain at the start of the season seeing our strike force consisted of an injury prone Noel Hunt, Simon Church ( who only scored the odd goal on loan at Div 1/2 level) and Shane Long could see that we would struggle to score goals and the signing of Rasiak who couldn't even get in to a strugling saints team did not inspire confidence. To try and put thsi right at such a crucial stage of the season is beyond belief and the signing of an out of form/non match fit Icelandic on loan is not the answer either.

Not forgetting Terry Bell and Dick Habbin,along with Les Chapple lstill better then anything we got now.

[bobbybottler]

Ah, the Billy Whitehurst - Steve Moran front line - classic! Other than the Wembley trip, that was an awful season! (It's also when I started going to games on a regular basis - nope, I don't know why either)

Yep. Even when a Moran dry spell ensured clean sheets galore, he could always rely on Whitehurst to do the business for him.

Aye, Whitehurst could be a surprisingly subtle striker, often prone to sneaking in round the back.

[ankeny]

Ah, the Billy Whitehurst - Steve Moran front line - classic! Other than the Wembley trip, that was an awful season! (It's also when I started going to games on a regular basis - nope, I don't know why either)

Yep. Even when a Moran dry spell ensured clean sheets galore, he could always rely on Whitehurst to do the business for him.

Aye, Whitehurst could be a surprisingly subtle striker, often prone to sneaking in round the back.

But how many did Steve Moran score,the biggest waster we ever had

[Only one Trevor Morley]

Glad to see morley get a mention for obvious reasons but shame that Nogan wasnt there. He scored some crucial goals for us. Although he wasnt a 20 a season man I admit....

[Thaumagurist*]

.

[Dirk Gently]

But how many did Steve Moran score,the biggest waster we ever had

You do talk crap. According to http://www.royalsrecord.co.uk/ he did score 38 goals for us.

Out of how many games and from how many chances? "Waster" doesn't mean "scores zero goal"s - it means "scores very few goals from lots of chances"...

[West_Reading]

I was about 8/9 when Lee Nogan scored 'that' goal in the play off final. At the time it was the most unbelieveable goal i'd ever seen!

[Broxroyal]

Senior would not have been as effective without Horrix alongside him,

He also played with Kevin Bremner...

Agreed, but the principle is the same - main striker who gets most of the goals but doesn't do much work, plus support striker who does a lot more work and gets a lot fewer goals.

At the moment we've got two support strikers who both do a lot of work but get the square root of bugger-all goals.

Agreed. Senior was really "just" a finisher. Quite a poor footballer apart from putting the ball in the back of the net umpteen times. This gave him the headlines, of course.
Horrix was superb at doing the donkey work and setting up Senior but a poor finisher himself.
Bremner could do both; he could set up Senior and also finish. Prior to coming to us he was known as a goalscorer.
Simon Church reminds me of Dean Horrix; he works very hard, has good skills, does everything right except put the ball in the back of the net.
We really do need an out and out finisher alongside him, like Senior or, for those with longer memories, Les Chappell.

[ankeny]

But how many did Steve Moran score,the biggest waster we ever had

You do talk crap. According to http://www.royalsrecord.co.uk/ he did score 38 goals for us.

You talk crap,Moran was here just for a last payday,I remember him well,ask anyone who saw him.

[PEARCEY]

Handbags - before Dixon it was Ollie Kearns. I still scare my kids with tales of his lack of skill.

Senior was partnered for a couple of seasons by Dean Horrix who was also capable of scoring a few, and Maskell wasn't sold, he was swapped for Tom Jones. It'd be worth mentioning Steve Moran and David Leworthy, IIRC we started the 90/91 season with those two plus Senior meaning we had the most expensive forward line in division 3. Obviously, we were promo...oh, hang on.

Unforgiveably though, you've missed off Brayson.

if your going to mention Steve Moran why not mention Billy Whitehurst as well I remember watching with growing frustration the day back in 1988 when we were relegated from this division whilst these two were firing blanks in a 0-0 stalemate(i think we played Hull)

[Thaumagurist*]

But how many did Steve Moran score,the biggest waster we ever had

You do talk crap. According to http://www.royalsrecord.co.uk/ he did score 38 goals for us.

You talk crap,Moran was here just for a last payday,I remember him well,ask anyone who saw him.

To be honest, I do remember him and I do not remember him getting that many goals. It was only when I checked royalsrecord that I was surprised at how many he'd actually scored for us. He actually was 2nd leading scorer with 15 in 89/90, behind Senior.

I don't think he was the worse striker we've ever had - Brayson has to be that!!

[Pete10]

Of all them Quin was the best . Could head the ball into the net like a rocket and ,
And allways across the keeper . King Kerry a close second.

[Negative_Jeff]

These three were a bit useful and my personal favourites:
Pat Terry..................fantastic ability in the air
Nicky Forster.............played the lone striker role in an almost unique way
Lee Nogan................next to Doyle and Quinn the best all round striker I have seen play for us