Heffs

[northerncasual]

just because a certain player doesnt fit in at a certain doesnt mean the players not good enough. sharp didnt at sheffield united and remember how poor john sheridan looked playing for us.

[VikingJames]

His build up play might not be Championship standard, but his goalscoring record certainly can't be called into question. He scored around 1 in every 2 when given a run of games in 08/9, and then fell out of favour the following season after a slow start. I believe he could've replicated that in 09/10 if given a run of games similar to what he was given in 08/9.

[benaldo]

I couldn't stand Heffernan, but he did score some goals. More than anyone else bar Sharp, I think in recent years?

[andysly]

just because a certain player doesnt fit in at a certain doesnt mean the players not good enough. sharp didnt at sheffield united and remember how poor john sheridan looked playing for us.

Fair enough but don't forget he was at Oldham and Bristol Rovers on loan as well and never set their world on fire.

[john_donc857]

Championship quality - I'm sorry but no. And as was posted earlier 23 other managers felt the same as SoD.  However I'd have had him these past six weeks, but you can't keep players in squad and on the payroll in case of a severe injury crisis.

                                                                                     I had to have a little giggle at this post. If you cannot keep players in the squad and on the payroll in case of injury what exactly have we been doing with the likes of wilson, hird, and lockwood for the past 3 years. Paul heffernan doncaster rovers legend

[Jonathan]

This is a good debate, can we have it again next week, and the week after that?

Pleased to see Heffs doing well, good player for us. He was always going to do well in that league, he's a goalscorer and people with that gift will score no matter where they play, even moreso in such a terrible division as he's in now.

Truth is he's better than that league but he's moved on and so have we. There have been a number of past players it would have been nice to have back through our injury crisis, we could talk about it forever.

[andysly]

Lockwood was a regular until injured last season.
Hird played as a starter often last season and is almost always on bench.
Wilson regular sub.

Heff would've been no where near the first 16 until the 3 injuries in first 2 games. And probably still wouldn't have made first 11 in past few weeks.
And I wrote severe injury crisis not just in case of injury.

[john_donc857]

Lockwood was a regular until injured last season.
Hird played as a starter often last season and is almost always on bench.
Wilson regular sub.

Heff would've been no where near the first 16 until the 3 injuries in first 2 games. And probably still wouldn't have made first 11 in past few weeks.
And I wrote severe injury crisis not just in case of injury.

                                                                                      He was no where near the 1st 16 in our 1st season in the championship untill crowd pressure and the fact that we were bottom of the league forced S.O.Ds hand. He made him luck a c--t and he never forgive him for it.

[andysly]

It was an 18 man squad in that season and heff was in it though didn't get on the pitch a great deal. If anything it was the headbutt sending off at Southend that got SoDs back up.

[jonnydog]

It was an 18 man squad in that season and heff was in it though didn't get on the pitch a great deal. If anything it was the headbutt sending off at Southend that got SoDs back up.

Pissed me off too, though I was in a bar in Barcelona at the time and quite a few english said that was our hopes of reaching the play-off final down the drain. How wrong could they be, as the next game was one of, if not THE best Rovers performances I've been to, not to mention the atmosphere that night!!

... What was funny was us all wondering round Barcelona trying to find a pub with it on. We got to an Irish bar and asked two english lads who were having a smoke at the front door \"what game are they showing?\", to which one replied...

\"Dunno, some shite Unibond league game I think\".

... I knew we were in business at that point

[BillyStubbsTears]

It was an 18 man squad in that season and heff was in it though didn't get on the pitch a great deal. If anything it was the headbutt sending off at Southend that got SoDs back up.

He was actually our equal top league scorer that season, including a proflic run in the winter when Hayter was injured.

Actually, whatever Heffernan did to piss off O'Driscoll pre-dated that stupid headbutt by a good length of time. O'Driscoll has rarely criticised individuals in his time here, but Heffernan was an exception, drawing critical press comments from O'Driscoll almost from the off.

I fully appreciate that Heffernan was never the style of striker that O'Driscoll preferred. He's always wanted strikers who work hard for the cause outside the box as well as sticking the ball in the back of the net.

With Sharp, and sometimes with Hayter, you get both. Heffernan was never in that mould, and that clearly irritated O'Driscoll, certainly judging by his public comments. But it's no co-incidence that two of our best runs under O'Driscoll (Dec 06-Jan07 and Dec08-Feb09) came when we played to Heffernan's strengths. The lesson I take from this is that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and more than one way to set out a successful football side.

The really key moment for me in O'Driscoll's approach to Heffernan came in April 09, after we'd beaten Ipswich to more or less secure our Championship status. Heffernan scored in that game - his eight goal in the last 14-15 starts. He was immediately dropped. We went into the next game with Hayter and Guy up front and Heffernan on the bench. We lost and to be honest, we were dreadful, looking woefully short of punch. Other sides near the bottom won that day and suddenly we were potentially being dragged down into the relegation scrap again. Heffernan was immediately recalled, and scored as we won comfortably at Plymouth to finally all-but put relegation behind us. O'Driscoll's post-match interview went into raptures about how well Hayter had played, and what a vital player he was for us. Not a single mention of the bloke who had scored the goals that had actually saved us. That always seemed a strange couple of weeks - as if O'Driscoll genuinely resented the player who had been so central to saving our season.

And by the way, of course this is ancient history, but the fact that it raises so much interest 2-3 years down the line is indicative of the fact that it is one of the 2 most controversial issues during O'Driscoll's reign - the other being his preference from Wilson over Green for most of that dire run in 2008.

All in the past, but, Jonathan-permitting, I guess we're allowed to discuss our past?

[The Red Baron]

It was an 18 man squad in that season and heff was in it though didn't get on the pitch a great deal. If anything it was the headbutt sending off at Southend that got SoDs back up.

He was actually our equal top league scorer that season, including a proflic run in the winter when Hayter was injured.

Actually, whatever Heffernan did to piss off O'Driscoll pre-dated that stupid headbutt by a good length of time. O'Driscoll has rarely criticised individuals in his time here, but Heffernan was an exception, drawing critical press comments from O'Driscoll almost from the off.

I fully appreciate that Heffernan was never the style of striker that O'Driscoll preferred. He's always wanted strikers who work hard for the cause outside the box as well as sticking the ball in the back of the net.

With Sharp, and sometimes with Hayter, you get both. Heffernan was never in that mould, and that clearly irritated O'Driscoll, certainly judging by his public comments. But it's no co-incidence that two of our best runs under O'Driscoll (Dec 06-Jan07 and Dec08-Feb09) came when we played to Heffernan's strengths. The lesson I take from this is that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and more than one way to set out a successful football side.

The really key moment for me in O'Driscoll's approach to Heffernan came in April 09, after we'd beaten Ipswich to more or less secure our Championship status. Heffernan scored in that game - his eight goal in the last 14-15 starts. He was immediately dropped. We went into the next game with Hayter and Guy up front and Heffernan on the bench. We lost and to be honest, we were dreadful, looking woefully short of punch. Other sides near the bottom won that day and suddenly we were potentially being dragged down into the relegation scrap again. Heffernan was immediately recalled, and scored as we won comfortably at Plymouth to finally all-but put relegation behind us. O'Driscoll's post-match interview went into raptures about how well Hayter had played, and what a vital player he was for us. Not a single mention of the bloke who had scored the goals that had actually saved us. That always seemed a strange couple of weeks - as if O'Driscoll genuinely resented the player who had been so central to saving our season.

And by the way, of course this is ancient history, but the fact that it raises so much interest 2-3 years down the line is indicative of the fact that it is one of the 2 most controversial issues during O'Driscoll's reign - the other being his preference from Wilson over Green for most of that dire run in 2008.

All in the past, but, Jonathan-permitting, I guess we're allowed to discuss our past?

No problem with discussing the past, so long as we don't re-write history. In April 09 Heff was suffering with a hernia (or groin, not quite sure which but one of our usual abdominal problems). As a result, he was \"benched\" for the Preston game on Easter Monday after scoring in the 3-1 win at Ipswich. As you say, we lost 2-0 to Preston (Chris Brown scored) and played poorly, although Heff replaced Guy on 64 mins when we were only a goal down. Heff was then restored to the team that won 3-0 at Plymouth, but didn't play in the final two games as our safety was assured. He had his op and started the first two League games in 2009-10 (although he was subbed in both).

[BillyStubbsTears]

TRB. I generally bow to your knowledge on matters historical, but I've got to take issue with that.

There was absolutely no comment at the time if the Preston match about Heffernan having an injury. It appeared to be a straight case if him being dropped for the fit-again Hayter. (Hayter had been out since early December. When he got injured, O'Driscoll bemoaned our luck saying (and I quote) \" You feel that if any player in our side was capable of going on a goalscoring run, it'd be James.\" Discuss...)

Heffernan went in for a cartilage operation after the Plymouth match. Quite why we rushed him in before the season ended, given that he clearly was still match fit, and  we clearly weren't going to rely on him the following season ( we selected him for only 1 league start in the next 9 months) is anyone's guess.

[Viking Don]

I gave up on the Heffs debate a lomg time ago. For me he's second only to Kitch in my favourite strikers list, and will be for a while longer until Billy gets a season or two under his belt.