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 St Johnstone v Aberdeen.

 St Johnstone managed by Steve Lomas  :)

 Sammy has an uncanny resemblence to Kurtz in Apocalypse Now these days...he's been out for 10 months with a busted ankle.

Cracking atmosphere there.

A word of praise to the Aberdeen fans, some at least must have made the journey south, despite the foul weather and police warning not to travel.

I'd say Parkin was marginally better than Fallon....but the standard was pretty poor, OK maybe a bit harsh to judge in such foul conditions.

Think ourselves and a number of Div 4 teams would see off both of these two easily enough.

Sad to see Fallon at this level...had the talent to go a lot further in my opinion,could be brilliant on his day.

Wasn't as good as SSP though.

Agree....though i would say SSP made the most of his talent to the full...alas i feel Fallon didn't.

I think injury stopped SSP reaching the heights of his talent. Fallon has no such excuse.

350 Dons fans travelled. 1,600 there in total.

parkin looked decent last night, held ball up well in hateful conditions and had probably the best touch on the pitch, i'd have him back like a shot.

Disagree. Barring injury i think Parkin could have easily established himself in the championship if not the prem.
Fallon was decent but nowhere near the player Parkin was.

Our fans continue to astound me.

Fallon is/was a complete fucking donkey. He had the odd moment as any footballer does, fuck me even Heskey has turned in the odd performance/goal, it doesn't mean he's any good.

Injuries aside, Parkin was so much better than Fallon it is almost unfathomable.

Good god you lot.

Just realised everyone was saying SSP was better. Ha.

I stand by my rant.

The Heskey argument always brigs a smile to my face. Heskey has been bought and played by some very big teams. He is no where near as bad as people like to make out

SSP hardly wasted a ball with his back to the goal, it looked to be going the other way where he now has a problem, he was never the quickest. Nevertheless looked to be at least as mobile as Magera, considering it was his first full game for 10 months.  I'd have agreed a while back, but now we need better...something like the old SSP would do.

I agree fully, old Sammy yes....now Sammy no.

I didn't once say he was a better player...........my point wasn't about who was better but who made the most of the talent they had....and i will repeat it again.....Fallon hasn't while Sammy has!

Since leaving us in 2005 Super Sammy has scored 22 goals in 130 games, with only 6 of those coming in the Championship. In contrast in his first season with us he scored 26 goals

That is certainly not making the most of his talent. If anything I'd call that a complete and utter waste of his talents (not his fault he's had a bad injury record since leaving us)

He was much better than that.

I 'm fairly certain Leefer meant at swindon

It is a fair point DV....didn't realise how poor a record he has in terms of actual goals scored after leaving Swindon.

Still eligible for England though!

I didn't say you had.
How did Parkin make the most of his talent? He started quite well at ipswich notching a few goals before injury. He has never recovered since. Has not had a run of games to get any sort of form going.
Fallon has been playing regularly and at a world cup. He went as high as he ever would have.

Agreed arriba.  Its the other way around - Fallon has made the best of his talent, while Sam has, possibly through no fault of his own, not gone as far as he should have.

Fallon made the best of his talent? :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Sorry Baggins can't agree with that :no:

Only 29 and playing for Aberdeen.....he should be at his prime and while with us and Barnsley looked a great prospect and should be playing Championship football i reckon these days.

Super Sammy Parkin

Brought some sunshine during difficult times off the pitch at Swindon.

Gave us another year when would have been easier to move on.

I don't use the word legend often to describe favourite players in my time supporting Swindon but Sam Parkin is up there with the best.

Great player on the pitch but equally a decent bloke off it. What player would walk into a home pub at the end of his last game to thank the fans ?

Until the last time this lad ever kicks a ball he will always get a standing ovation from me.

SSP - A Legend.

Fair enough.  I never saw that much potential in him to go much further than his performances with us.  I didn't think he was mobile enough, missed too many chances and although he was strong in the air, he misdirected his headers too many times.  

Sam was much more naturally talented - in my opinion anyway.

Still got time on his side though Baggins if he scores regular at Aberdeen.

To be honest Fallon's career has surpassed anything I predicted he'd do after leaving us.

Its all subjective though innit.

Very true leefer - and I'd be very happy if he proved me wrong.  I really liked Fallon - just thought Parkin had far more potential.

Let's not forget Fallon's played in the World Cup.

Well a big money move and i believe record transfer fee for Swansea at the time suggests to me that others felt differently Batch,i thought he would go on to better things but in hindsight the money we got at the time was the better option,as you say we may never know now....the goal v City and the scream of joy he let out when grabbing our second at Brighton(playoff) are good memories.

He's spent most of his career since leaving us in the championship, and played in the fucking world cup finals. 

I really don't understand how you can say he hasn't made the best of his talent?! He's always been a limited target man, not to be relied upon for goals. To have the career he's had so far, fair play to him

Parkin is my all-time favourite Swindon player.  I even have an England shirt with his name on the back.  He catapulted us above our deserved league placing at the time, and transformed the fortunes of the club.  The best signing STFC have made in the last 15 years - although Simon Cox runs him close.

Fallon joining softened the blow before Parkin's inevitable departure, and he did score THAT goal against Bristol City, but in terms of talent and goalscoring he was a shadow of Parkin.  Parkin vs Cox is a more appropriate debate.

How Parkin hasn't gone on to much bigger and better things is beyond me.  Maybe I'm remembering him through rose-tinted spectacles, but I fully expected him to get back to the Premiership and score goals for a mid-table side.

I agree with you on nearly all points, except he isn't my all time fav. Deffo the best player of the last decade or so though imo.
The reason he hasn't gone onto better things is injury. Deffo had the potential to do what Cox has or better, if he hadn't had the knocks he has.

Am I right in thinking that Ipswich fans never warmed to Parkin? Even though he was scoring goals prior to his unfortunate injury troubles, I seem to recall that he wasn't very highly rated up there. Parkin was responsible for some of my best STFC memories and had an incredible natural instinct - he always seemed to be in the right place at the right time and make the right choice. He could dribble the ball around three players and tuck it away or bundle the ball in from 1 yard.

Cox was similar but had a penchant for the spectacular and long range efforts that Parkin never had.

No point discussing whether Fallon's career path indicates whether he fulfilled his promise; after all he never made the decisions himself as he left it up to some imaginary fairy bloke to decide.

There was a video on youtube until recently that had all of Parkins goals for us and trust me no amount of rose tinting could come close to just what a lethal finisher he was. Left, right and head. Inside the box, outside the box - the bloke was a monster.

Apart from perhaps a yard of pace, Parkin had everything.  He scored all types of goals.  I really think he could have been a premier league player if it wasn't for all the injuries.  Such a shame.

Boring... Can we move on please

he was talking to us on his way into the County Ground before his last home game and promised my lad his boots at the end. True to his word he spotted my youngster down at the barrier and handed them to him. They are still my lads pride and joy on his bedroom shelf. It did help that we had made a flag though. ( super sammy parking thanks ) even made the advertiser. Also got curetons but they are not as important to him.

And size 3

 :clap:

Yeah, they are tiny. Ian Miller was also a size three or four.

Bizarrely, Ian Miller has been wheeled out a couple of times recently as a talking head for Leeds, instead of Grayson when they've had a dodgy result. I say bizarrely, because as far as I know, he's never appeared in the ex SPWATN thread.  He's seemingly gave up playing for Town around 79 and pitched up at Leeds 32 years later  :)

Reg, didn't know Ian was at Leeds, I'll make a point of watching out for him.