I meant more that he played for us, the Chelsea thug (not Graham Roberts) broke his leg, and he was never the same player again...
Alan Birch. He often tore us a new one when he was at Chesterfield, and I was expecting big things from him. He wasn't bad for us, but never hit the heights.
Didn’t need to move much, played four or five games and looked amazing. Never left the centre circle.
He could have played more, but there aren't too many who have totted up 200+ games, been capped for their country and strongly influenced games over multiple seasons. It certainly doesn't fall into the realm of failure for me.
He was more interested in the white lines sadly. Agreed in that game he was a world beater, but his addiction / demons got the better of him. I hope he's continuing to recover & make something of his life, he must have massive regrets & issues that will still take years to overcome.
Agreed, it was a tragic injury to a quality player for us. I think he'd have fitted our current side as holding midfielder well, getting stuck in & setting up play. I could have sworn it was Roberts, but have to bow to people who had a better view than me. I was in the packed Brewery Stand that day & I'm a short arse.
I was in the corner between Brewery Stand and Ponty as but a wee shippersnapper (ish). We've lost some very good players to injury down the years. Cross, Thomas, McGugan, Fleming, Watson, curiously, many of them making a lot of appearances for us.
Paul Cross was a great player who was blighted by injury. At least Fleming made about 250 appearances, he was a real class footballer. Barnsley's answer to Franz Beckenbauer.
I think its a sign of the times that you just wouldn't expect players of Taggart and Flemings quality to be with us for over 200 games now before they went for a few million.
Mido Dale jennings Chris shuker - seeing how good he was against us with Hartlepool. Played 100 games or so but only here 2 seasons
Wouldn't put Gwyn Thomas in this thread - regular for years for Barnsley. He was injured and never fully recovered but he was a fantastic player for Barnsley
Rohan Ricketts. I don't know why he's the first name that comes to mind but he had a great pedigree, Spurs and Arsenal both I think and looked classy in pre-season. I thought he was the sort of signing who'd fire us to a promotion push. But he fell out of favour and I'm not really sure what happened after he left. George Smith. I thought he was a good little defender and seemed a top lad to boot who had his head and heart in the right place. I thought it was a real shame it didn't work for him and I hope he can make a living out of the game. Nathan Jarman another youngster I wanted to do well but who didn't quite make it.