Agree about Sheehan and Cooper - they're being carried.

Ado wrote:Agree about Sheehan and Cooper - they're being carried.

Such a shame about Sheehan. I think that injury really did a number on him. I'm still holding out hope he will return to pre injury form though.

The important thing now is not to rush him. What was the provenance for FGR being interested?

George Street-Bridge wrote:The important thing now is not to rush him. What was the provenance for FGR being interested?

To repeat what I said earlier this year.

Labadie would not resign.
He would train with Dagenham and play for them if recovered.
If his recuperation was satisfactory he would sign for FGR.

As we know Labadie has signed only until the end of the season. I suspect that if he makes a full recovery he will be off then. I don't blame him if he does. If of course he is not the player he was, well we will have picked up the tab.

For the sake of completeness, even if he is only with us for six months, at his best he may be the difference between promotion and staying in League 2.

It is Flynn's decision to make and I can see the logic of it. These are judgement calls. I am not saying the decision to resign Labadie is wrong. I am saying that in Flynn's position I would have made a different decision.

Time, as always, will tell.

I'm guessing that any other club showing an interest at this stage would have to make a decision based on the sayso of the player and/or his agent regarding Labs' recovery from the injury. Flynn and his staff will be much better informed. Important now that we hold fire. Dolan and Bakinson will need to play regularly together for a month or two yet.

Back to 3 at the back with Butler and Pipe / Forbes / Or even Pring? wing backs and a midfield three of Bakinson / Dolan / Labadie with Podge and Matt up top!
Harris and Semenyo to play a part from the bench!
Now that will be a good team!

I think we will need to beef up midfield before the window opens which is still 10 weeks away. We're restricted to free agents most if not all of whom will be coming back from serious injury and as Excessbee says, we're much better off with a known quantity.

I interpret him signing now as meaning there's a likely date for return within that time, but wise to keep that under wraps.

George Street-Bridge wrote:I think we will need to beef up midfield before the window opens which is still 10 weeks away. We're restricted to free agents most if not all of whom will be coming back from serious injury and as Excessbee says, we're much better off with a known quantity.

I interpret him signing now as meaning there's a likely date for return within that time, but wise to keep that under wraps.

You are absolutely spot on George. Whatever the outcome Flynn has made the right decision with the information available to him now, hindsight at some time in the future will not change that.

I understand some of the misgivings about him not signing first time around but having seen enough of our team this year when we are missing players and have to rely on Cooper or Sheehan in the midfield we really are powder puff and the defence isn't good enough to play with no protection. Even if he only plays half the games and is only 80% if the player he was I still think it's a significant improvement in the squad for the rest of the season and we can go away to top half teams and set up really difficult to beat. Onwards and upwards hopefully! Great point last night so a win Saturday will get us going in the right direction again. Come on the Port!

Good morning from Sunny Newport
Lots of points to make
1 if Labs had stayed fit and was a regular IMO we would now be at the top of the league with Lincoln and would never have let Yeovil stick 6 past us.
2 Lack of any commercial structure is a total joke, okay directors are volunteers bur gee wiz priorities please - Lots of dosh required. Empty spaces around the ground, hospitality empty.
3 Openess - Sorry but total joke does anybody on here know what is going on at RP with our so called neighbours and the WRU?
4 Thank goodness for Flynny but lets not forget 2 other people without them he would struggle - Wayne & Lennie
5 Forgive me if not correct but have heard Wayne still waiting for a contract, only Flynny was sorted
6 Times are hard again heard the team cannot afford hotel meals before away games so eating on the coach
7 The call for nutters to be banned on a football forum is as daft as banning those calling for it.
8 I do miss some of these characters who presumably didn't fit into the cosy cosy equation (nutters or not)
9 Apologies for putting everything in one thread but busy times.
Finally Sheehan like Samuel and so many before looked good in a crap side but are just not up to top Division 2 standard, notice how they all drift into non league eventually.
3 points Saturday please Flynny.

County Exile wrote:It says in the announcement that trust members received advance notice of this by email. Still waiting for mine!

Great news though.

Apologies; please see https://www.ncafctrust.org/news/joss-labadie-re-signs/

So - is he currently fit to play? Close to being fit to play? All he's quoted as saying is "I’m back. The knee’s all good and I can’t wait to get going now. It’s been a long seven months."

Fingers crossed we see him on saturday even if it's only on the bench same with crofts although I doubt that we will see crofts because he's "Injured"

As he has signed this week,I guess he is very close to a return.If he is still 4-6 weeks away,I can't see why we have signed him unless we were worried that one of the clubs supposed to be interested in him beat us to it.

Happy to have Labs back albeit with some reservations about what his form will be like following a serious injury. There is one thing I don't understand though.
He didn't want to re-sign for us presumably because he could get more money elsewhere. Now in spite of a host of other clubs clamouring for his signature we are allegedly able to sign for less than we offered last season. That doesn't stack up. More likely the host of other clubs was a figment of his agents imagination or we have upped our offer.
Not sure where I read about the reduced deal. If it was on this message board I could be barking up the wrong tree.