Mainstand eye Case for the Defence

As I walked out of the Abbey Stadium after the end of the final home of last season my thoughts already turned to next season, with a sense that we could see another high turn over of players in the summer. However the management's revolving door must have been close to spinning off down Newmarket Road with those departing or with those being available for transfer. Some, somewhat expected, some came as a shock, but clearly some hard decisions had been made. Thankfully Richard Money was still in place complete with unique death stare. His own position of overseeing the rebuilding of the team to challenge further up the table this season, appeared strengthened.

From what was seen on the pitch towards the end of last season, comments made by Richard and Jez and their subsequent opperation of the the revolving door it was clear that we would see a number of new defenders arriving.

No matter what you think of Graham Westley and his original Stevenage side it was certainly ruthless, very physical and highly efficient as they won the much mellined FA Trophy and then promotion to the league. For me they also had three quality players who I would have loved to have seen in a United shirt at that time. Centre forward Steve Morrison, the sadly deceased Mitchell Cole and Mark Roberts. Although some may argue that Roberts stood out because of his Boris Johnson style hair cut, I was personally delighted to see that Roberts was one of our early recruits for the new campaign. I remember him being a powerful, comanding leader in the heart of the Stevenage defence and certainly he moved on to have a successful spell at big spending Fleetwood. However in 2015 he looks completely different, the crazy white hair has gone, have we signed the same Mark Roberts? hopefully we have. I guess time will tell as he should turn out to be be a very important signing for us

Enough of the Mark Roberts love in. Less is probably known about the other two big defensive signings and Leon Legge certainly looks a like big unit alright and has a good C.V. in the lower leagues. On paper Leon promises to be another good signing giving central defence much needed improved quality and physicality. However not many games are won on paper.

The third signing, Elliot Omozusi appears to have created more of a reaction for his checkered past off the field rather than his reputation for being a quality league full back. We have been bitten before in similar circumstances but if he has genuinely learnt from his terrible misjudgment, at 26 he still has plenty to give us on the pitch. Elliot has clearly been made aware of the clubs community ethos, so let's hope that come August we are only judging him on the pitch.

Welcome Mark, Leon and Elliot.

Mark Roberts, United captain? better late than never.

Mainstand eye