Thetownend.com

Good as always, but quite a peculiar listen as he seems to recall being much better than I recall him actually being.

Nice to hear that he has found god, so his distribution must have improved considerably.  ;)

Tbf his claims that Vialli thought he was the next big thing largely predate his time with us. I thought he came across well, but then I always really liked him when he was here so I suppose I'm naturally predisposed to like him on the pod

I was more talking about his time here and afterwards (I slept through the first bit), I recall him being our own version of Titus Bramble, great with someone next to him telling him what to do, pretty poor when left to think for himself, which made all his talk about tactics rather interesting.

I see what you mean but I think it made it all the more pertinent, i.e. he wasn't sure what to do and got little or no guidance from a manager who just assumed he should know. I quite liked the fact that he was cross about that. He may well be rewriting history, which I think is what you're hinting at, but the fact he's still a bit cross about it I think says a lot about his desire to be the best he could be. I like that personally

I probably watched at least 80% of the games he played for us and I’d describe him exactly as above. Which I feel a bit harsh about because he was good player and decent bloke.

If his mental attributes had matches his physical attributes he’d have been Rio Ferdinand.

I absolutely loved Jerel. He had his faults, but his man marking and recovery pace were incredible.

I met him once and he came across as a really nice guy - probably helps the misty-eyed memories.

When Jerel signed on loan from Watford he looked raw but a really good player, always had a few faults but was a good tackler, decent in the air and had bags of pace, could pass a ball too.

He had pretty poor concentration at times though and lost his man often in games, certainly nearer the end of his time with us.

Gave everything he had though and you can't fault him for that, like a poor mans Jon Gittens.

Onoura and Malpas brought the worst out of him.

Like others I remember him as a very good player, but needed guidance on the pitch.

I also remember him getting a red card once for a high foot, after clearing a ball with no other player near him.

I remember one at home to Hartlepool in the last minute he kicked the ball clear with Adam Boyd stood vaguely next to him outside the box and the ref gave a penalty (which gave Hartlepool a 1-0 win)

Might be the same incident but don’t think he got sent off. Could well be wrong though

My synapses may be getting a little crossed, but there was an incident something to do with him kicking a ball away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_3R623kBUM&feature=emb_logo

Just over 1 min in.

This was the game

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/MatchCentre.asp?MatchID=20090131

No Adam Boyd though...

I remember a game away at Bradford and their player broke through (think we were 2-1 up at the time) he was heading towards goal, One and one and out of nowhere Ifil just takes one for the team by completely taking him out. We held on and won.

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/MatchCentre.asp?MatchID=20050126

This is the game he specifically menrtioned in the interview...

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/MatchCentre.asp?MatchID=20080116

Never realised how many times he got bloody sent off! http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/Person.asp?PersonID=IFILJERE

I seem to remember him picking the ball up to to take a throw in one game, the only trouble is the ball hadn’t gone out of play and the opposing side scored from the free kick.

Torquay at home.
Think it was a header from the free kick. Possibly Akinfenwa? Or maybe Constantine

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/MatchCentre.asp?MatchID=20050116

Video doesn’t show it but I’m pretty certain that’s what lead to the free kick that’s crossed in for the Torquay opener.

The way Jerel gets caught ball watching for the 3rd though 🙈

What a slip of a lad Akinfenwa was in those days.

Remember the diving header winner at Millwall right in front of us in the last 10 mins. We went mental.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEpNiCdV1-g&feature=emb_logo

That's the one :beers:

Its also a decent illustration of many of his shortcomings.

Listening to the podcast Jerel and those videos and he got on the end of some rough refereeing decisions. He said when he went to the FA after the Rovers sending off that he was refused his appeal on reputation.

Just listened to this one.

I reckon I was at, roughly 90% of the games he played for us & I rated him but the area he was lacking was football intelligence...

So, I will be honest. I wasn’t expecting him to be such an intelligent, switched on, well articulated man. I mean don’t get me wrong I wasn’t expecting him to be at the level of Donal Trump or anything.

Now, in retrospect I wonder whether his mental lapses on the pitch were not because he wasn’t thinking but because he was over thinking about the other players and what they were supposed to be doing.