Felt a bit sorry for him on Saturday as he has done well this season and really wanted to play against the Makems. I know he needs a rest and so on and will be all the better for a wee spell on the bench but it was quite poignant seeing him on the bench. Nice lad, though - first off the bench after the match to hug the other players.

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

Answers

Will he get his place back?

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

Well, our injury record would suggest that he will get it back sooner rather than later....I hope he gets it back. In fact,I'll be spitting nails if he doesn't.

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

I mean we need Dabizas's aerial ability and from what I've seen of O'Brien he seems the marking, ball playing type very similar to Hughes. If Dabizas had not been injured for so long I'd expect that Hughes may have continued where he left off at Left Bakc for the season.

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

Thing is, he's not a left back and is only an ersatz right back..he's basically a centre back and why we bought O'brien given how similar he is to Aaron is a bit of a mystery unless we ARE going to play 3-5- 2 next season. But then again, where do the Caldwells fit in?

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

This was the very predictable problem associated with signing O'Brien. He and Hughes are very similar players, and I suspect Aaron's going to get a lot less playing time now.

I'm expecting us to bring in a big CH, who will compete with Dabz and Steve Caldwell for the other CB place. Remember also that Gary Caldwell is coming up fast on the rails, and could well be pushing O'Brien and Hughes before the end of next season.

As someone else has said, with our injury record we will probably need all of these players just to get thorugh the season. However, sooner or later one of them is going to lose patience with sitting on the bench.

Another thought - if Man City go down, as expected, how about a return for Steve Howey as the big centre half? I got to talking to some City fans after the recent game at SJP, and they reckon he's been their best player this season, by a country mile.

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

Clarky, I heard Howey's dad on local radio recently and there is a certain bitterness that NUFC got rid of him, particularly after he'd turned down Liverpool to stay here (and he did go to Liverpool and talk to Houllier who saw him playing with Hyppia).

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001

........hhmm. We'll forget that one then. Thanks dougal.

(I need to send you an e-mail about bbs issues. I'll send it later to your hotmail address)

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001