Poor Carl - out for months, not match fit but thrown into 2 massive games, probably ahead of schedule. Then he gets slated by the media. Watched the tape of game last night and BBC giving him a hard time, as were Sky this morning. A touch unfair wouldn't you say? Yeah he hasn't been great but he's hardly played a competetive game.

I think he'll be OK, not first choice over Bellamy but I think there's enough about him to be a decent striker. What do others think?

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002

Answers

I don't think a partnership with Shearer is right for Cort, never have done, don't think I ever will, but he still has a decent strike rate.

Give him 10 matches to get back to full fitness - Shearer took his time after coming back earlier in the season. Cort has been out for 10 months, you can't come back after 2 games and expect to be fully fit.

There were some parts of the crowd yesterday that were a tad harsh on Cort considering his recent return, but maybe a few more reserve games would help?

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002

All we can go on are his few games before he got injured in which he looked like a good goalscorer. I don't think he's fully fit at the moment so I don't think we can judge him on last nights performance.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002

I agree about the partnership with Shearer. I don't think it will ever work. Mainly because Shearer needs pace around him. And Cort is the same style player as Shearer. Cort Bellamy may work.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002

Yeah, agree Lynda. Felt sorry for Cort last night. He clearly wasn't 100 per cent, or back in tune yet with the pace of the toon. And despite a terrific, fighting performance at SJP, am delighted to see all the pundits writing us off for the Highbury replay. Will be looking out for the odds on a Cort winner - assuming he plays.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002

Cort IMO will not make the grade as a top Premiership striker - and that is what we need. I noticed his poor ball control and clumsiness which will relegate him to at best an average Premiership player.

On the positive side he does get into reasonable positions, puts himself about and on the evidence of the few games he did play can score goals.

I fear that his general ackwardness will lead to him getting injured frequently especially as he has to play a physical game to counteract his poorish footballing ability.

I fervently hope that I am wrong!

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002

Ya Jim, a partnership between Cort and Bellamy may work. Would be great so Shearer could rest some games.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002

Agree with True - I'm impressed by his positional sense, he does get himself in the right place to score goals. Also his goals/games ratio is pretty good so far. On the debit side, he can get brushed off the ball and sometimes looks clumsy - if he can become a bit more Heskey and a bit less Tony Cunningham he could be a decent asset.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002

Realistically we should be looking to Cort to replace Shearer, not play alongside him. In the short term it would be great if he could fill in when Al's injured or is in need of a rest. Shearer probably shouldn't be playing more than 30 games a season or so anyway.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2002

For me, Cort looked to have lead in his boots from kickoff, but slowly improved. I thought he was lucky to stay on after half-time, though, because he was not making the penetrating runs we needed. Touch was ok, no better than that. Missing that crossfield ball behind Campbell looked worse than it probably was, but fully fit and match sharp he may have gotten on to it. I think he'll be ok in 3 or 4 games, but I don't think we've seen enough of him yet to think he'll be a superstar for us.

As for a Shearer replacement - once in a generation player is wor Al.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2002