Just reading Biffa's post match commentary on the Bradford game and noticed this comment about Caldwell, "His voice could also be heard organising the defence at times - a rare feature of our backline in recent years."

Anyone else notice this? Sounds very promising! Maybe a future pairing of Hughes and Caldwell?

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

Answers

That's what I have said all along. they NEED someone at the back with a big British gob, putting the fear of God into the rest of the defence, so they dare not "go to sleep". I read some very good reports on the lad, though only seen him on T.V for about twenty minutes. The lad did seem to know which way was up. A bright future, one report said. Perhaps the future is here and now.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

I've heard reports that he was constantly leaving his man in lots of space. Maybe he was confused with the Sweeper system?

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

I read an interview with Andy Griffin who palyed with him a lot in the reserves last season who said that Caldwell's best trait was that he will shout at people...

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

My reaction at the game was that he was raw, made lots of mistakes, but showed real potential.
He certainly didn't seem to lack confidence, which is unusual in someone playing his fist game, and did indeed do his share of shouting. His positional play wasn't great and he did tend to lose his marker, but hopefully you can put that down to inexperience.
Interestingly, he saw lots of the ball and generally used it quite well - again with the odd error. However, he did look for the ball and look to get involved in bringing the ball forward, which I found very refreshing.
All in all, a very promising debut.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

Hopefully he can get another couple of games under his belt and persuade Bobby to keep hold of his cash.

He is coming to a crucial part in his career where he needs to graduate from Scotland U21 games to the full squad, then he really is on the road to a few games. defenders always need to be experienced but judging by the comments on here not much phases Steve and this can make up for a lot.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

Future Scotland captain, then. My old man was also impressed by him. A shouter is exactly what we need, since, as I never tire of saying (even if everyone else tires of hearing it) I don't think we've had a commanding CB since Glenn Roeder.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

He should have got man of the match, Wednesday, I reckon. I didn't particularly notice him losing his man any more than any of the rest of them when they fell to bits. Stood out like a sore thumb for me.

Definitely one for the present, I'd say. Pity he's not competition for Speed, apologies to his fans, but I still can't rate him.

He's sure to have a blinder on Saturday, now.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

I presume Hughes will return on Saturday, although NUFC.com report the virus may yet keep him sidelined. Will we return to the flat back four? After all, despite the praise for Rob Lee's endeavours at Sweeper we've shipped four goals in two games playing this system.

Lets get back to the days when we kept the clean sheet, at least for another couple of games anyway.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000