Hall of Infamy
Kurt Nogan
Looking forward to the new season, I
reckon John Benson will put paid to Wigan's chances; Gillingham will take a little while
to adjust to Peter Taylor; Bristol City will need to rebuild after losing Akinbiyi and
having messed up by getting rid of John Ward; and Ron Noades will go the way of Carlisle
when their chairman decided that he could do a better job as manager.
So that only leaves us and Preston, and judging
by their end of season run they probably won't have the bottle for a promotion campaign.
Speaking of bottles, they'll probably have to keep Nogan off the bottle if they're going
to do anything.
I really dislike Nogan because he was always the
kind of player that could only play when things were going well or against his former
teams. I remember he scored two for us against Brighton at home in the first 25 minutes
but never looked like wanting a hat-trick, which really annoyed me, and he scored against
Luton away in the first game of the season before Waddle. I can't remember any other games
against Luton but I do remember a miserable Boxing Day match at the Goldstone where he
scored a hat trick against us; we were playing in 'Jade' and Black and it finished 3-0.
I'd like to think that he'll lose interest and
start throwing his shirt at the manager if he gets substituted (like he did with Mullen),
but I'm sure he'll go and get thirty goals and a cap for Wales just to spite me.
It's funny, because I still have a great deal of
respect for David Eyres and I've even a slight soft spot for Parkinson; he was always
really good in the air, and even though he seemed to make a fair number of cock ups, he
did get voted into the players' Second Division XI when he played for us - and, of course,
he did score that goal at Wembley.
I always look forward to seeing John Gayle
scaring defenders, I look out for the results for Hull, Rochdale and Northampton because
they're all riddled with former Clarets, and I might even make the effort to go and see
Woking against Forest Green just so that I can see Adie Randall again.
I just don't understand it, because I'm really
happy for Eastwood that he's scored six goals in pre-season (with two against us) and
secured a contract at Morecambe and I'm happy for Duerden that he had a good season in the
Conference last season, but for some reason I despise Nogan.
Andrew Braid
August 1999
