In praise of Shane Long...

[The Goat was fed]

Praise indeed from a fellow pro:

http://www.greenun24.co.uk/ipswich-town ... l_1_843982

IPSWICH Town defender Gareth McAuley has revealed the Championship striker he would most like to have in his team – Reading’s Shane Long.

Centre-half McAuley, who will proudly skipper Northern Ireland in tonight’s European Championship qualifier against Slovenia, admits that pacy front-runner Long is the striker he most fears in the second tier.

Although a distant second in the Championship’s goal-scoring charts to Watford’s Danny Graham (23 goals), it is Long’s (18 goals) powerful running, on and off the ball, that has given McAuley his biggest headaches.

“Shane Long was very, very good the other week,” admitted McAuley, referring to Reading’s 3-1 win at Portman Road three weeks ago, when Long was amongst the goalscorers.

“If you look at out stats, he ran us down the channels and he ran us all over the place.

“We ended up doing a lot more running than we have done in other games, and that was all down to his (Long’s) willingness to run and graft for his team, and close down.

“He was a real handful. Someone like that makes such a big difference to a team. It makes a hell of a difference.

“You just don’t get a minute’s peace. When the ball is coming to you, you are either getting challenged or he is going to be there in a matter of seconds.

“A ball into the channels is a great link ball, and if you have got someone running the channel for you the whole 90 minutes, it’s a massive help to the whole team,” added McAuley.

The 31-year-old Town stalwart put Long above the likes of Graham, Norwich target man Grant Holt, Swansea’s in-form Scott Sinclair, Doncaster’s Billy Sharp and the Football League Player of the Year, QPR’s Adel Taarabt.

A leading contender for Town’s player-of-the-season, McAuley has been named Northern Ireland’s captain for tonight’s home match against Slovenia, due to the absence of regular skipper Aaron Hughes with a shoulder injury.

It is a deserved reward for McAuley, who chalked up the second goal of his international career in last Friday night’s 2-1 defeat to Serbia, a result that has left Nigel Worthington’s side fifth in Group C, eight points behind leaders Italy.


Maybe our lad's not so rubbish after all.

[brendywendy]

Although a distant second in the Championship’s goal-scoring charts to Watford’s Danny Graham (23 goals), it is Long’s (18 goals)

distant my arse

[Wycombe Royal]

Although a distant second in the Championship’s goal-scoring charts to Watford’s Danny Graham (23 goals), it is Long’s (18 goals)

distant my arse

5 goals is distant at this stage of the season......

[The Goat was fed]

Interesting...I don't remember starting this thread. Dad, are you on my HNA? account again?

[brendywendy]

bah! its a mere short walk to the shops

[Gordons Cumming]

Does this mean that some posters on here were wrong?

[handbags_harris]

Not necessarily. His form is immense, absolutely immense, but to be considered wrong he'll have to do it for two or three seasons consecutively, not in sporadic fits and spurts.

[Ian Royal]

Not necessarily. His form is immense, absolutely immense, but to be considered wrong he'll have to do it for two or three seasons consecutively, not in sporadic fits and spurts.

And of course, he may well have been playing rubbish in previous seasons, and still been fantastic this one.

[sandman]

Just scored the equaliser for the Republic against Uruguay.

[londinium]

Nice job Shane.... involved in build up and scored...... Job done.

Substitute at half time please.....freshen up for the weekend.

[papereyes]

Not necessarily. His form is immense, absolutely immense, but to be considered wrong he'll have to do it for two or three seasons consecutively, not in sporadic fits and spurts.

and if he could try and play well before Xmas one season that'd be grand

[Ian Royal]

Not necessarily. His form is immense, absolutely immense, but to be considered wrong he'll have to do it for two or three seasons consecutively, not in sporadic fits and spurts.

and if he could try and play well before Xmas one season that'd be grand

Derby was the week before, is one game enough?

[Svlad Cjelli]

Just scored the equaliser for Ireland vs Uruguay.

[pea]

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this but he just scored the equaliser against Uruguay...

[URZZZZZZZZ]

IIRC he scored the equaliser against U-r-gay earlier

[Sarah Star]

He did well, making chances, running the channels etc even - and didn't he score a good headed goal, I'm not too sure... shame they lost.

[royalhaven]

The header was well taken indeed. He create good space for himself from the defender, was a head above everybody else, and put it clear in the upper left. Towards the end of the match he should have also gotten a couple of nice assists but Keogh blew both.

[Gus the teenage cow]

man of the match by a mile, godin could only ever stop him by fouling him, he ran their back four ragged all night, oh and let's not forget it was a full strength uruguay side against an Irish reserve side so he was surrounded by mostly average or inexperienced players with the exception of fahey, james mccarthy and mcgeady when he came on......pleased with Ireland tonight, some of the kids look tasty and long looks like he has come of age

[Arch]

Not necessarily. His form is immense, absolutely immense, but to be considered wrong he'll have to do it for two or three seasons consecutively, not in sporadic fits and spurts.

Very rare misstep from you there, hh. Plenty of people said Shane was rubbish and they were all dead wrong.

[Elmer Park]

Whatever he has said before, I think last night was the first time Trapattoni has started to think Longy could be a starter in his first choice team. Chances of Shane being at Reading next season diminishing by the week.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... again.html