Clayton Mcdonald-what do you think of him Gasheads

Firstly it puts to bed the resigning of Bolger from Leicester which is a shame.

That out of the way a Rovers welcome goes out to Clayton, we certainly need another CD to replace Kenneth.

From what I have read he has endured a very turbulant time at Port Vale, understand that McDonald was acquitted of the rape of a woman at a Premier Inn in Rhuddlan on 30 May. His co-defendant, and former Manchester city teammate, Ched Evans was convicted of the charge, and sentenced to five years imprisonment this led to a dip in form given all the stress at the time.

McDonald built a good centre-back partnership with John McCombe at the start of the 2012–13 campaign, but was warned to lose weight and improve his fitness by manager Micky Adams,one other downside is that he suffered a shoulder injury and is slightly impulsive similar to Parkes on the card collection front.

Apparently the new signing of Oldie (35) Darren Purse from Plymouth has edged him out of the side.Odd given Port Vales position in the league perhaps they have gone for experience who knows.

My hope is that a fresh start for Clayton will do both him and Rovers some favours and give Ward options at the back.

I personally think subject to seeing him play Clayton sounds like a sound loan.

What do you think Gasheads.I have asked the Vale posters what they think of him also.

COR

 

As I posted on the other thread;

 

Apparantely the Vale fans are bemused at why they have allowed Clayton leave given there other CD option is out injured.

One reason may be that as his contract is up at the end of the season perhaps Ward has offered if we stay up a contract extension with Rovers who knows that would make sense.The more I read the more positive it sounds.

COR

 

found not guilty so the guy shouldnt get any stick from our own fans who moans about players who been naughty boys.
he has played over 20 games for the team who is top of the table so there is something about him not losing games.
reading what port vale fans think of him http://www.onevalefan.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?68533-Clayton-out-on-loan the majority of them are baffled about this deal and believe they will miss him.
apparently he is not great in the air which is strange considering his height. but good passer and tackler and comfortable on the ball. prone to the odd mistake but who aint in league 2.
as i said on the other thread i hope he is here to support the defence as we are short in numbers. i hope he is not here to push parkes into midfield.

good signing says i but clean sheet at fleetwood and since mildenhall been here in goal not once has he had the same CD pairing in front of him 2 games running. a bit of consistancy is needed so i could keep mcdonald on the bench. very good cover though.

keep o'toole until the end of the season and get a striker in then we have a good team all of a sudden who should be and got the potential to be very much higher up the league. i will be very sure of staying up with we can keep o'toole and get the right striker in.

 

Looks like a straight replacement for Bolger. Perhaps he'll be a bit less injury prone than Bolger too.

 

hope so. really worried that parkes be pushed in CM due to this though. hope im worrying about nothing though

 

You might be right Capt for some reason Parkes is seen as a midfield option all of a sudden and Ollie Norburn is not the flavour of the month.Part of the reason for that I assume is down to teams walking through our midfield creating problems for the defence,perhaps both Mcghee who started it and Ward feel the requirement for tough tackling in that area.

I struggle to see Parkes as a midfielder same as you and by all accounts Parkes himself.

As for JJ and a striker agree if sorted then we stand a fighting chance to get out of our current predicament.

I am as pleased as the next Gashead with our result at Fleetwood (I even predicted we would win) however everyone seems to getting carried away with 1 win including Rovers management,we have been here before after a win then gone out and lost the next one,if we are able to put back to back wins together then we can feel more positive it really is one game at a time and we could easily lose the next one,no being negative just realistic.Also we need the teams above us to lose!!!

COR

 

U2 posted from the valients

COR

 

Let's hope he is as good as he should be. He also needs a new contract at the end of the season, so he should put the effort in. I still think JJ is the key to how we finish up. He is the buzz in the midfield. As things stand at the moment, any of the clubs in the bottom half of the table are at risk of relegation. The bottom four have five games in hand between them to start with, before we have anything like a level playing field. What other clubs do is of no consequence to the Gas at this stage of the season. In the first instance we need to get reconnected to the lower part of the table, then procede from there. There is nearly always a club that has massive wobble at some stage and goes into freefall. Also its not always bad luck to face the upper clubs towards the end of the season as they are often very nervous and do not necessarilly play to form!

 

Agree with the JJ comment Saph,apparently according to CJs post its up to him if he wishes to extend we are keen his parent club have given it the green light he is definately key to our midfield deficiency,everything crossed he re signs for the right reasons and wants to stay.

As for the reconnection with the bottom teams this is a seriously valid point and we need to pick up a few valuable wins and they lose or draw during the same period at the moment we win they win which is status quo and no real movement happens.A club having a wobble is needed right away!

COR

 

Our destiny is still in our hands and we do not have to rely on teams above us to lose.

We have 2 games in hand on Plymouth, Aldershot, Barnet and Accrington - win those and we will go above all four of those teams.

McDonald should be a handy addition to bolster the defence, but, as most of you have said, it is improtant to secure the services of JJ until the end of the season. That, in my opinion, is more important than getting another striker in.

Remember - we beat Fleetwood in style because we had to play the ball to feet as we did not have a big striker available. Sure, it would be good to have the option of a big striker, but I don't want us to revert to hoofing it up the pitch McGhee-style because those tactics got us where we are today.

 

BB it is not going to hurt us if any of those teams above us start losing as the stats show we have yet to put B2B wins together our next matches weather dependant are crucial to our survival plans,whilst ball to feet works with some teams others we will need plan b with a larger striker who is able to take the pressure off of our midfield and defence also pressurise them in a different way so as we have small strikers suggest we do require a bigger man up front to change the axis of attack when needed( poss set pieces),not as you say hoofing it as was the style for Mcghee (even when we had small strikers).

Sat 26 Jan 2013 - Rotherham (6th)v Bristol Rovers. lost to relegation rivals Barnet and shots so we need to win this one.
Fri 1 Feb 2013 - Bristol Rovers v Barnet (20th) draw 1-1 Barnet were not good so we have a chance at home,also the have lost there last two games.
Tue 5 Feb 2013 Cheltenham (5th) v Bristol Rovers Lost 1-0 at home if I remember hardly threatened their goal.Struggling to score more than 1 drawn last two.A win would be good.
Sat 9 Feb 2013 - Oxford Utd (12th) v Bristol Rovers we lost 2-0 at home hardly our finest hr they were all over us.Oxford in a good form perhaps we will be better organised than we were last time.Draw.

If I had to choose between a striker and JJ staying I would at this moment in time select JJ however we still need a regular goalscorer and Tom has not scored many goals on his last two loan outs Richards hit or miss and Woodards well he can chip in occassionally but he is a wing back.

COR

 

Agree about JJ over a striker. We'll see how the young Brunt pans out - but it would be great to get Benson in.

My target from those matches:

Rotherham: 1pt
Barnet: 3pts
Cheltenham: 3pts - we will beat them, I reckon
Oxford: 1pt (if we're lucky - they're on form as you say)

I would be over the moon if we got 8pts from those 4 games - that would see us out of the relegation zone and upWARDly mobile. One thing's for sure - JW will make us harder to beat and if we retain the services of JJ O'T, we will always have a goal or two in us.

 

As long as Brunt is not our only option in the striking dept given his tally in 38 matches and Clarkson returning to fitness Ward may think that we do not need another in the door?

If we also pick up the Swindle man doubtfull unless Swindon make up his contract diff with 18 months to go on there wages why would he take a lower payscale....simples

COR

 

Yeah, I'm not sure about Benson - if the rumours are to be believed than there are some teams on the verge of promotion interested in him, so we're probably out of the picture.

 

He's a more experienced "Bolger" - similar build, hopefully a bit less injury prone and a solid acquisition. Great news!

 

im sure you know but i'll state it in case.... just to point out, what i said above was taken from the evil post so not my opinion etc etc. thought best to point this out so no one quotes me saying i said it lol