Quote Originally Posted by pingu_pie View Post
Yes, he did - away at Dagenham and Redbridge about 5 years ago, on a Tuesday night, with us 1-0 up. It was my birthday, and I had taken three of my colleagues who hadn't seen me ever get so angry over anything. Ever. Pet hate though - you have an assigned penalty taker. That person takes the penalties. Anything like what happened that night just shows a team that the manager doesn't have control of.

I have to say, lots of good - terrible? - names on here, but it has to be hard to beat Hackworth, surely? Lots of names more than disappointed, but even Andy White had some obvious talent with his feet (even though he trod on the ball rather than tapping it in once) - he probably suffered from being so tall, if he had been 5'7" he would likely have made a good winger. Same for Agana - he's made worse by the still being our record signing by some distance, but you occasionally saw some ability, and there was that goal against Spurs in the league cup at least. Funnily, haven't seen anyone mention Peter Beadle, isn't he our second most expensive signing? He did nothing other than one wonder goal, v Barnsley or Brizzle City I think.

But Hackworth... Cost a lot, came as having just played in the semi-finals in Europe or whatever, did nothing at all and never looked like doing. He really was the nadir for me.
I would place Beadle in the “Biggest disappointments” pile. He was clearly talented, but just didn’t have the right attitude - I remember a couple of great goals, including the brilliant one when he ran from the halfway line, beat a few defenders and then lashed it into the top corner. Memory tells me it was against York in League 1, which shows how far we have both fallen.

Beadle cost £250,000 from Port Vale, so he wouldn’t be the second biggest signing. That would still be John Chiedozie, I think, who we signed for £600,000 in 1981 - an astronomical sum for the time, especially by our standards. Ridiculous to think that we sold him to Spurs for almost half that amount (£375,000) three years later when he was only 24 and had only improved in his time with us (well, maybe not his finishing in one-on-ones).

The other obvious choice for biggest disappointment was Chris Marsden, who seemed to be great everywhere he played - except for at Wolves and us. Another ex-Notts player to captain a side in an FA Cup Final. But unlike Brian Kilcline, his team lost (1-0 to Arsenal in 2003).