Novelty worn off...?

Last updated : 24 December 2002 By Site Staff
Why can't the two work together?
Dean Ashton was the biggest propsect around 2 years ago with comments of him being 'the next Michael Owen' flying around and £8million moves to Aston Villa. A drop in form and a bad injury .... has the novelty worn off or have we learnt our lesson about putting so much pressure on so small shoulders? - Well we haven't learnt our lesson...

Ashton is still, i reckon, one of the best youngsters to come out of the academy. That is not echoed by many with his injury and lack of consistancy lowering peoples opinion. No longer is it Hulse we should drop to the bench should we have too many strikers fit and on form but Ashton. Dare i say it but Ashton is the better player out of Hulse and Ashton.

Hulse has got the finishing, the(newly found) skill, the pace and the vision but Ashton has all that and the strength. Not only that but everything he hits at the moment turns to a chance missed than a chance gained. He smacks them from 40 yards and misses by a fraction of an inch - everytime. That's skill.

It's no coincidence he lost all self belief and confidence when he got his knee injury and no coincidence hes back to be the boy to watch after a operation and a goal. These last three games has seen him take the piss out of defenders like he use to. Saturday he was immense up front with Swindon not knowing what to do with him except try and call offside every time he timed his run to perfection to weave through on goal, 10 minutes in showed his class when from 30 yards he hit a thunderbolt from just off the right flank and with skimmed the crossbar. then second half saw him pick up the ball and weave in and out of the Swindon players - no luck involved, just skill - until one bad touch stopped him beating the last man.

That one goal at port Vale has brought out the real Ashton - lets hope he's here to stay this time because him and Hulse acutally can work up front(going back to Simons article) as it when he came into the team at 17. Abit of coaching with him and Ashton from Dario to get a perfect partnership and stop them making the same runs, we can then have Jack just behind them 2. Without doubt one of the best attack forces in the division.