Most liked posts in thread: Donaldson and Clarkes Contribution

Can't even get close to agreeing with that. Donaldson has made some real positive impacts in games, DMH never even got close to contributing anything.

 

Bloody hell Jon I often agree with quite a lot of what you say but this is baffled me

DMH should only be compared to someone like Bruenker, neither should have made professional appearances.

Donaldson has over 500 career appearances, many in league 1 and the championship. His legs have gone but he’s still scored 4 this season and I believe he’s our second top scorer in all comps, plus he’s run his body into the ground every game when it was obvious he needed a rest. Bit of an insult to the bloke in my opinion to be compared to an obvious amateur.

 

Clarke gets pelters and I've no idea why? I'd get it if he offered nothing but that's clearly not the case.

 

Cummon Jon. After Walsall scored on Saturday, we became nervous and very edgy. It was only when CD came on and used his experience to calm us down did we secure the points. A loss of 2 points would have been criminal in a game we dominated. I actually thought we should have conceded a pen but on seeing a replay, the ref got it right. That all said, I wouldn't start CD. If we need him, he is now better to come on when the defenders are tiring.

 

So what? That doesn't make him in DMH territory. Nor does it mean he can't play a very useful squad role for the rest of the season. Which is why T&S keep putting him on the bench.
Donaldson showed more control, nous and useful touches in ten minutes on Saturday than DMH has in his entire Bradford City career. He settled us down and re-established control when we were flapping badly.
It's insulting to suggest that he's sunk to the level of a player who never looked like a FL pro player.

 

I think you are losing the plot and the argument. I think you are probably right about this being Clayton's last season but to say he is no longer any use to us as a squad player is just plain silly. And to mention him in even the same sentence as DMH is crass.

 

That's right. Clarke's contribution was sorely missed when he was out injured and (I think) Stevens replaced him. FCD got no help from Stevens and was left badly exposed. Ultimately this lead to FCD being dropped.

 

For once in a long long time, we have a management team who have ruthlessly cleared out the dross from our squad and signed much better players we need, position by position. They seem to have known what they were doing. My feeling is that T&S, Sparks and Turnbull had no interest whatever in trying to pay off or send Clayton elsewhere. He's there for a reason. On the pitch, to do what he did in the last few minutes of the game - and a similar thing they've used him for now and again over the last dozen games. Unless we hit major injuries and suspensions, of course he isn't going to start. But if we do, there's a man with the experience of 500 plus games under his belt. But I also suspect he's there on the training pitch to help set standards for our younger players, show them what you need to do in terms of commitment and fitness to still be playing league football after nearly 20 years in the game. And I also suspect that T&S and Sparks are looking to keep him on, not as a player after May, but as part of the coaching set up with the youth squads.

 

Give up

 

He outscores DMH in every facet of the game, the first one being; he has a footballing brain. We are all agreed that he is no longer competitive at this level but he deserves our respect, not derision.

 

Funny how people see different things, I'd probably go with Doodles view in that very early doors under T&S Clarke was doing a good job on that right hand side, good ball retention and did a lot of work helping out FCD.

 

Any chance of being more respectful to a solid professional whose always given 100% for every club he's played for ?

 

I'm in the camp Donaldson has a role to play with his experience seeing games out in the dying minutes and presumably as a good figure in the dressing room, he's certainly no DMH. But the original point I believe someone made was he had done more going forward than Clarke, which is an absolute nonesense. Clarke was probably our best player under McCall (a low bar, admittedly, but he still was) and then put in a several very important shifts out of position on the right as well under T&S

 

As T&S brought Donaldson on to do, kill the game we're 2- 1 ahead get the ball up there end and make it stick, which is what he did.

 

Indeed. We know the Don isn't going to score many goals. But in the hold up role with the likes of Crankshaw, Vernam, Cooke, Sutton buzzing around him I think he'd still do a job for 45 minutes if required.

 

We could just start him for the last match of the season, as a send off and tribute to his lengthy career, it won't matter as automatic promotion will have been confirmed by then.

 

I'm glad Trueman and Sellers do the team talks and not us lot. I'll bet they rate Donaldson and Clarke a lot more highly than we do and to be honest it's just as well with run of games we've got coming up. We are going to need them all whether we think they are past it or not.

 

He also slowed the pace of the game down at a time when Walsall were on top and dictating the game.
He did the simple things like coming into our half to pick the ball up (up until then it was being hoofed up to Rowe only to come straight back), making short 1-2s with those around him and helping to keep possession.

 

So far this season Clarke has clearly contributed more than Donaldson. But neither would be in my starting 11 if everyone was fit and available.