Head Down Hoskins

[Clarity]

Just seen this on Twitter

STAT ATTACK ⚡️⚽️

Sam Hoskins of @ntfc has created 3⃣1⃣ chances in League Two this season. That is 11 more than any other player in the division. 💥

Now that's some creative Cobbler 👨‍🎨🥾

[Deepcut Cobbler]

He did put a neat ball through to Odoffin for vV's goal.
Although he did put a shocking cross in at the start of the second half.

[guest2995]

Just seen this on Twitter

STAT ATTACK ⚡️⚽️

Sam Hoskins of @ntfc has created 3⃣1⃣ chances in League Two this season. That is 11 more than any other player in the division. 💥

Now that's some creative Cobbler 👨‍🎨🥾

According to Clarence and his hyperbole , Hoskins has done nothing ...
The stats must be wrong and he will come on here and write 300 words to tell you why .....
And then blame Cornell for today’s defeat

[The 12th Marquis of Sixfields]

How many of these chances led to goals? Do they count blasting it high and wide from 12 yards as a chance? Is a cross that goes behind for a goal kick a 'chance'?

[guest47]

It's the running for 90 minutes that sprinters have trouble with.

I'm pretty sure fitness or ability to run for 90 minutes was not the problem.

[guest2677]

I'm pretty sure fitness or ability to run for 90 minutes was not the problem.

Ahh, so you mean Bolt isn't as good a footballer as he thought he was. Probably right.
I'm still pretty sure he won't like running for ninety minutes though!

[Tabasco Kid]

How many of these chances led to goals? Do they count blasting it high and wide from 12 yards as a chance? Is a cross that goes behind for a goal kick a 'chance'?

Indeed. If they had said "scoring chance", then I may have been more impressed.

[guest47]

Indeed. If they had said "scoring chance", then I may have been more impressed.

Well at least you were impressed.

[guest47]

Ahh, so you mean Bolt isn't as good a footballer as he thought he was. Probably right.
I'm still pretty sure he won't like running for ninety minutes though!

Exactly, I don't think he realised how hard it is to be a pro footballer. Despite what Tommy Mooney might say and I suspect he is just being self-deprecating, it's ludicrously difficult to make it. There's literally thousands of perfectly fit players lower in the pyramid and the various senior county leagues throughout the country. Virtually all of them would kill to get the chance to play at a full time professional or even paid level.

Lower league players are often dismissed as rubbish but that's because most people's only point of reference is the Premiership, the toughest league in the World, where the average player wage is an eye-watering £2 million per season.

It's interesting that when the Prem or Championship teams play us lower league fodder in the FA or League Cup they do generally get through but it's hardly ever by any means a thrashing. They are usually glad to escape without an embarrassing defeat.

Perhaps the players we pay our hard earned money to watch aren't so bad after all.

[Clarity]

How many of these chances led to goals? Do they count blasting it high and wide from 12 yards as a chance? Is a cross that goes behind for a goal kick a 'chance'?

I don’t believe you are that stupid

[Tabasco Kid]

Well at least you were impressed.

Not quite what I intended to say, but, good point, well raised. 

[WasRambo]

Tend to agree.

Often, whether or not a player gets to the Prem is a case of right place, right time, much like any career.

Sure, there's loads of brilliantly talented players in the Prem but pretty sure there's plenty of players in L1 and L2 who would "blossom" in loftier environments.

People who stand on the terraces and think they're as good as who they watch are kidding themselves. You only have to watch players touch, balance, etc. during warm ups to see they're light years ahead of Joe Public.

Anyone who plays pro has talent, or at least has shown it at some point.

I'm big into my golf now, before I played and coached cricket. They are technical games that you can, by repetitive learning, get to a decent standard. The golf swing, batting and bowling are repeatable tasks on the whole, albeit with variations in each motion. Good players can repeat those motions, great players do it with more imagination and often more steely resolve.

Football is different imho. Not least because of the team element but more because the infinite variations that occur within a match. Give me a course layout and I can plot my way how I intend to get around it today, for a round tomorrow. You cant't do that with football and that is why the pros, even the ones we watch, are so much better than us mere mortals

[everbrite]

Tend to agree.

Often, whether or not a player gets to the Prem is a case of right place, right time, much like any career.

Sure, there's loads of brilliantly talented players in the Prem but pretty sure there's plenty of players in L1 and L2 who would "blossom" in loftier environments.

People who stand on the terraces and think they're as good as who they watch are kidding themselves. You only have to watch players touch, balance, etc. during warm ups to see they're light years ahead of Joe Public.

Anyone who plays pro has talent, or at least has shown it at some point.

I'm big into my golf now, before I played and coached cricket. They are technical games that you can, by repetitive learning, get to a decent standard. The golf swing, batting and bowling are repeatable tasks on the whole, albeit with variations in each motion. Good players can repeat those motions, great players do it with more imagination and often more steely resolve.

Football is different imho. Not least because of the team element but more because the infinite variations that occur within a match. Give me a course layout and I can plot my way how I intend to get around it today, for a round tomorrow. You cant't do that with football and that is why the pros, even the ones we watch, are so much better than us mere mortals

What's your handicap?

[WasRambo]

They gave me 13 which won't go down well when I actually start playing comps. I was happy with that considering I've only been playing two years and everything I do is from watching YouTube

I got that 6 months ago based on 3 cards averaging 89 (ours is quite a tough course). I'm averaging 81/82 now and have started lessons as I think I've got the game to get to low/mid single figures.

Might have to wear a sombrero rather than a cap as playing off 13 will be well bandit....

[ClarenceInDefence]

According to Clarence and his hyperbole , Hoskins has done nothing ...
The stats must be wrong and he will come on here and write 300 words to tell you why .....
And then blame Cornell for today’s defeat

What hyperbole? He has only provided assists for two goals so far in 16 league games this season and has also not scored to boot. Andy Williams has more assists from passes this season than Hoskins, in less starts. Those are facts.

As to these 31 'chances' he has created, I doubt we have missed many more than 31 chances all season, and there's no way he has created all of those missed chances on his own. In fact I can think of numerous chances we have spurned which did not originate from a Hoskins ball, though Crooks' miss the other week is one that does come to mind.

[ClarenceInDefence]

<sub>Exactly, I don't think he realised how hard it is to be a pro footballer. Despite what Tommy Mooney might say and I suspect he is just being self-deprecating, it's ludicrously difficult to make it. There's literally thousands of perfectly fit players lower in the pyramid and the various senior county leagues throughout the country. Virtually all of them would kill to get the chance to play at a full time professional or even paid level.

Lower league players are often dismissed as rubbish but that's because most people's only point of reference is the Premiership, the toughest league in the World, where the average player wage is an eye-watering £2 million per season.

It's interesting that when the Prem or Championship teams play us lower league fodder in the FA or League Cup they do generally get through but it's hardly ever by any means a thrashing. They are usually glad to escape without an embarrassing defeat.

Perhaps the players we pay our hard earned money to watch aren't so bad after all.</sub>

I more or less agree with this, which is why I expect a little more from certain players (ahem) when they regularly make dreadful errors, where IMO being 'only a L2 player' is no excuse. In England little more than 1'000 pros line up each for the start of a match each week in the professional leagues, a very tiny number compared to how many players fall by the wayside in the 'whittling down' process leading to a professional career.

I would say though that one off cup games are a different beast than if a L2 side were playing at Premier League/Championship level week in, week out.

The gap between Championship and Premier League, for example, is massive. Discounting the game where they played each other, Cardiff and Fulham have registered 2 wins in 22 matches between them so far this season and they finished 2nd and 3rd in the Championship last season respectively, this gives some indication how tough it is to succeed at that level.

[Ron Obvious]

 I doubt we have missed many more than 31 chances all season,

I would say otherwise...

Lincoln 15 shots
Carlisle 14 shots
Wycombe 11 shots
Cambridge 20 shots
Morcambe 12 shots
Colchester 13 shots
Tranmere 17 shots
Cheltenham 8 shots
Port Vale 8 shots
Notts C 15 shots
Mansfield 3 shots
Bury 13 shots
Swindon 12 shots
Forest Green 12 shots
MK Dons 12 shots
Macclesfield 21 shots
Oldham 9 shots
Crewe 14 shots
Lincoln 10 shots


Excludes 3 games in the waste of time cup/vase/thingy.

[The 12th Marquis of Sixfields]

How many assists does Hoskins have this season? (grown up adult games only, not the youth cup thing from the other night)

[just.reading]

3 in 17 games...apparently

[Dan]

I can think of him assisting Crooks at Carlisle and JJOT at Swindon. Possibly gets an assist for winning a peno against Cheltenham too.