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Most Disappointing XI


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Saw this in the downstairs thread, thought a few other fans up here would have an opinion on their own clubs biggest disappointments.

For us it'd probably go

McNeil (GK) - Was a decent shot stopped but honestly was dire at everything else, lost in a crowd of bodies at corners and could barely catch a ball. Ended up slinking off abroad somewhere. Remember thinking after we signed him that we finally got a keeper back that could actually win us games...

Jonathon Brown (RB) - He was on loan to us and looked to be okay - we've had a long term illness of never actually getting a RB in so having a natural RB seemed an improvement. Absolutely not. He was shite. Cost us games and now is at Bonnyrigg. Think the only reason he looked okay in the first place was that we won the 3rd division that season

Darren Cole (CB) - A player who played in European competition and somehow was made our captain. Quite possibly the worst defender I've ever seen us sign. Hopeless at everything he did.

Coll Donaldson (CB) - He came through the youth ranks and was made out to be the next best thing for us before suddenly shipping off to QPR and failed to impress at Dundee Utd after. He was only really made to look good by big Jesus at the time who done well at Hamilton before a bad injury.

Neil Hastings (RB) - Just throwing him in here as he might actually eclipse Darren Cole. Was a youth coach with us who moved onto first team coaching duties. Suddenly was signed on as a player if ever we needed him. He made a total of 30 minutes on the park for us coming on as a sub for an injured player and then being ripped apart before getting sent off for a shocking tackle. The disappointment was that this was who the players were meant to be learning from.

Jordon Morton (RM) - Always saw him warming up doing these mad skills but when he tried them in game it resulted in him losing the ball 90% of the time. Always was an interesting and sometimes exciting to watch but never actually delivered anything.

Burton O'Brien (CM) (The Second Coming) - Was a legend for us back in the day but never had the legs when he came back. Too slow in the middle and constantly passing across the way. He couldn't cut anything out in the middle and was a passenger half the time. Disappointing to see him become that but appreciated the effort in coming back

Liam Watt (CM) - Was highly rated when coming to us, another player that looked exciting, could take someone on and score a few. Was nothing compared to the players we had in the middle and was released 6 months into his contract and went back to Brechin. At the weekend he looks to have put on a bit of weight and is slower than ever. Game completely passed him by. There's a player in there somewhere but not for us.

David Luongo (LM) - Arrived at the same time as Tony Andreu who was an absolutely amazing player. Came from the same club and all signs pointed to him being another exciting player - except he never made an appearance or made the bench. To this day I'm convinced Andreu showed up to training every few weeks with a limp and a fake moustache to collect some extra money on behalf of his alter ego. He hasn't signed with anyone since then (2013) and has apparently fallen off the face of the earth.

Jordyn Sheerin (ST) - Arrived at the same time as Pittman did from the juniors at a time where we seemed to have tapped into a rich vein of good players at that level. He was the kind of player we were crying out for, a big strong target man who could hold the ball up and put the ball in the back of the net. All we got was a slow, out of his depth carthorse. All credit to him, he tried but got out muscled every time and went to Berwick Rangers after then signing for Kelty Hearts. That would've been fine if he hadn't have arrived at us after scoring 42 goals the previous season. We thought we were going to get an absolute goal machine but he scored 3 goals in 29 and was bang average throughout.

Gary Glen (ST) - Another player that put his stamp on the Darren Cole banter years, no matter what he did. He did it poorly. Absolutely dire player that was uninspiring whenever you saw his name on the team sheet. Always behind the play and somehow managed to do enough to stay in the first team.

Bench:
Mark Fotheringham
Kieron Gibbons
Rob Ogleby
Armand Oné (:D)
Ben Gordon
 

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Aurellio was the most annoyingly pish player I've seen at Livi, he had rubber legs syndrome and fell to the ground whenever anyone went near him, completely useless and cost us the chance of beating Celtic when we were 3 on 2 with Aurellio as the spare man, when Fernandez looked up and saw it was him he just went himself and lost the ball, then it was booted up to Thompson who brushed aside an injured Brinquin, Thompson hit the byeline and fired the ball across for Larsson to score and win the game 3-2 in the 4th min of injury time.

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GK - Mark Brown  - Came to us as a pretty experienced, reasonable enough, lower Premiership 'keeper and showed virtually nothing to suggest he'd ever been anywhere near good enough to play in the league above - never mind Celtic and Scotland B. Going from Danny Rogers to him was some drop.

RB - David Van Zanten - Another guy with plenty of experience at a higher level, he looked pretty much past it by the time he rocked up at the Rock. Seemed like a great guy, but had a habit of diving in too often, was far too slow and beaten too easily. Going from Paul McGinn to him was some drop.

CB - Andy Dowie - Perhaps it's too early to say, but I've been massive unimpressed by Dowie. He was always a pretty decent, no-nonsense Championship centre-back at Queens, but since he joined us he looks like a raging Da' determined to blame everyone but himself, when he's costing us goals AOTS. Sits deep, concedes silly fouls and doesn't strike me as a captain.

CB - Lee Mair - Really just copy and paste the opening sentence from Van Zanten's paragraph. Statistically we were dreadful with him in the team, and that was no coincidence.

LB - Scott Smith - The Scott Smith we had on-loan from Hibernian in the early Ian Murray days was a great player. A solid defender, with a decent left-peg on him. He was such a step-up from James Creaney and Ross Forsyth it was incredible. We were therefore all delighted when he signed permanently in the summer. That didn't last though, as he was a shadow of the player we had on loan. He seemed to get seriously overweight, looked scared to put a tackle in, and we ended up playing a right-footed CM at LB instead of him.

CM - Martin McBride - Signed in the summer of 2011, and then missed a considerable amount of pre-season because he was on holiday. No matter though, I'd seen him play quite a bit for Queen's Park and, after some decent showings in friendlies and a wondergoal against East Fife, I was sure he'd be a star. The fact that 8/10 people who are reading this are away to google him because they don't remember him playing for us tells you how that worked out...

CM - Nicky Phinn (!) - I feel a bit bad here, as Phinn clearly was a good player until injuries absolutely savaged him. Unfortunately when he joined us in Spring 2013 he was a shadow of the player the Pars fans had seen and lasted about nine minutes on every appearance before hobbling off. I'm told he was sensational in training though, which probably explains why we re-signed him.

CM - Scott Chaplain - Chaplain actually had a good record with us, however he should have been perfect having been sensational with Albion Rovers a few years earlier. Unfortunately he wasn't, and he loved a moan on the pitch, so I'm afraid he's punted in here.

ST - Archie Campbell - Was a constant thorn in our side at Morton, a rapid wee guy who was excellent at riling our fans. I was delighted when we brought him in and, despite being rubbish in that hilarious Morton (MorTEN) team, thought he'd be a very decent asset. Aside from causing Peter Houston to explode after rifling one in from 25 yards against Falkirk he was bang average. Worked hard, but was literally woeful in front of goal.

ST - Ross Campbell - A player we apparently tried to sign a couple of times, Campbell smacked in a stunning winner against Partick Thistle on his debut in a friendly. From then on he was near enough invisible and, a winner against Ayr United aside, left at some point without anyone really noticing.

ST - Ally Graham - El Ally Graham as he was christened by the Falkirk fans, was a reasonable squad filler in our promotion season, however he never really looked like an improvement on Bryan Prunty. Scored a lovely solo effort against Stirling Albion, but that aside was pretty disappointing. 

I've probably forgotten a few people here, but I'm sure I'll kick myself for that later on.

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GK - Mark Brown  - Came to us as a pretty experienced, reasonable enough, lower Premiership 'keeper and showed virtually nothing to suggest he'd ever been anywhere near good enough to play in the league above - never mind Celtic and Scotland B. Going from Danny Rogers to him was some drop.
RB - David Van Zanten - Another guy with plenty of experience at a higher level, he looked pretty much past it by the time he rocked up at the Rock. Seemed like a great guy, but had a habit of diving in too often, was far too slow and beaten too easily. Going from Paul McGinn to him was some drop.
CB - Andy Dowie - Perhaps it's too early to say, but I've been massive unimpressed by Dowie. He was always a pretty decent, no-nonsense Championship centre-back at Queens, but since he joined us he looks like a raging Da' determined to blame everyone but himself, when he's costing us goals AOTS. Sits deep, concedes silly fouls and doesn't strike me as a captain.
CB - Lee Mair - Really just copy and paste the opening sentence from Van Zanten's paragraph. Statistically we were dreadful with him in the team, and that was no coincidence.
LB - Scott Smith - The Scott Smith we had on-loan from Hibernian in the early Ian Murray days was a great player. A solid defender, with a decent left-peg on him. He was such a step-up from James Creaney and Ross Forsyth it was incredible. We were therefore all delighted when he signed permanently in the summer. That didn't last though, as he was a shadow of the player we had on loan. He seemed to get seriously overweight, looked scared to put a tackle in, and we ended up playing a right-footed CM at LB instead of him.
CM - Martin McBride - Signed in the summer of 2011, and then missed a considerable amount of pre-season because he was on holiday. No matter though, I'd seen him play quite a bit for Queen's Park and, after some decent showings in friendlies and a wondergoal against East Fife, I was sure he'd be a star. The fact that 8/10 people who are reading this are away to google him because they don't remember him playing for us tells you how that worked out...
CM - Nicky Phinn (!) - I feel a bit bad here, as Phinn clearly was a good player until injuries absolutely savaged him. Unfortunately when he joined us in Spring 2013 he was a shadow of the player the Pars fans had seen and lasted about nine minutes on every appearance before hobbling off. I'm told he was sensational in training though, which probably explains why we re-signed him.
CM - Scott Chaplain - Chaplain actually had a good record with us, however he should have been perfect having been sensational with Albion Rovers a few years earlier. Unfortunately he wasn't, and he loved a moan on the pitch, so I'm afraid he's punted in here.
ST - Archie Campbell - Was a constant thorn in our side at Morton, a rapid wee guy who was excellent at riling our fans. I was delighted when we brought him in and, despite being rubbish in that hilarious Morton (MorTEN) team, thought he'd be a very decent asset. Aside from causing Peter Houston to explode after rifling one in from 25 yards against Falkirk he was bang average. Worked hard, but was literally woeful in front of goal.
ST - Ross Campbell - A player we apparently tried to sign a couple of times, Campbell smacked in a stunning winner against Partick Thistle on his debut in a friendly. From then on he was near enough invisible and, a winner against Ayr United aside, left at some point without anyone really noticing.
ST - Ally Graham - El Ally Graham as he was christened by the Falkirk fans, was a reasonable squad filler in our promotion season, however he never really looked like an improvement on Bryan Prunty. Scored a lovely solo effort against Stirling Albion, but that aside was pretty disappointing. 
I've probably forgotten a few people here, but I'm sure I'll kick myself for that later on.


You forgot about the ghost that was Stevie Craig. I remember thinking he'd be a great signing and bar a 15 minute spell at Easter Road (I think?) he was rotten.
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9 minutes ago, Sonsteam of 08 said:

GK - Mark Brown  - Came to us as a pretty experienced, reasonable enough, lower Premiership 'keeper and showed virtually nothing to suggest he'd ever been anywhere near good enough to play in the league above - never mind Celtic and Scotland B. Going from Danny Rogers to him was some drop.

RB - David Van Zanten - Another guy with plenty of experience at a higher level, he looked pretty much past it by the time he rocked up at the Rock. Seemed like a great guy, but had a habit of diving in too often, was far too slow and beaten too easily. Going from Paul McGinn to him was some drop.

CB - Andy Dowie - Perhaps it's too early to say, but I've been massive unimpressed by Dowie. He was always a pretty decent, no-nonsense Championship centre-back at Queens, but since he joined us he looks like a raging Da' determined to blame everyone but himself, when he's costing us goals AOTS. Sits deep, concedes silly fouls and doesn't strike me as a captain.

CB - Lee Mair - Really just copy and paste the opening sentence from Van Zanten's paragraph. Statistically we were dreadful with him in the team, and that was no coincidence.

LB - Scott Smith - The Scott Smith we had on-loan from Hibernian in the early Ian Murray days was a great player. A solid defender, with a decent left-peg on him. He was such a step-up from James Creaney and Ross Forsyth it was incredible. We were therefore all delighted when he signed permanently in the summer. That didn't last though, as he was a shadow of the player we had on loan. He seemed to get seriously overweight, looked scared to put a tackle in, and we ended up playing a right-footed CM at LB instead of him.

CM - Martin McBride - Signed in the summer of 2011, and then missed a considerable amount of pre-season because he was on holiday. No matter though, I'd seen him play quite a bit for Queen's Park and, after some decent showings in friendlies and a wondergoal against East Fife, I was sure he'd be a star. The fact that 8/10 people who are reading this are away to google him because they don't remember him playing for us tells you how that worked out...

CM - Nicky Phinn (!) - I feel a bit bad here, as Phinn clearly was a good player until injuries absolutely savaged him. Unfortunately when he joined us in Spring 2013 he was a shadow of the player the Pars fans had seen and lasted about nine minutes on every appearance before hobbling off. I'm told he was sensational in training though, which probably explains why we re-signed him.

CM - Scott Chaplain - Chaplain actually had a good record with us, however he should have been perfect having been sensational with Albion Rovers a few years earlier. Unfortunately he wasn't, and he loved a moan on the pitch, so I'm afraid he's punted in here.

ST - Archie Campbell - Was a constant thorn in our side at Morton, a rapid wee guy who was excellent at riling our fans. I was delighted when we brought him in and, despite being rubbish in that hilarious Morton (MorTEN) team, thought he'd be a very decent asset. Aside from causing Peter Houston to explode after rifling one in from 25 yards against Falkirk he was bang average. Worked hard, but was literally woeful in front of goal.

ST - Ross Campbell - A player we apparently tried to sign a couple of times, Campbell smacked in a stunning winner against Partick Thistle on his debut in a friendly. From then on he was near enough invisible and, a winner against Ayr United aside, left at some point without anyone really noticing.

ST - Ally Graham - El Ally Graham as he was christened by the Falkirk fans, was a reasonable squad filler in our promotion season, however he never really looked like an improvement on Bryan Prunty. Scored a lovely solo effort against Stirling Albion, but that aside was pretty disappointing. 

I've probably forgotten a few people here, but I'm sure I'll kick myself for that later on.

Still remember Prunty's goal against us. Actually stood up and clapped it, doesn't get better than the way he took that. Hated conceding it but amazed to have actually seen it go in

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2 hours ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

You forgot about the ghost that was Stevie Craig. I remember thinking he'd be a great signing and bar a 15 minute spell at Easter Road (I think?) he was rotten.

 

He was very close to getting in, but my only reticence was that he came having scored about 5 goals in 60 odd games for Wycombe - so maybe we shouldn't have expected all that much. If Ally Graham hadn't been called El-Ally Graham by the Falkirk fans he'd have probably got in though.

We'll have him as an impact sub for Ross Campbell. Not that anyone would notice.

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When you say disappointing do u mean a player you expected more from ? 

If so last season Mark Millar was a real disappointment, expected him to run the show in league 1 but just didn't do enough and was one player I wasn't disappointed to see the back of from that very successful squad. 

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2 hours ago, ATLIS said:

Still remember Prunty's goal against us. Actually stood up and clapped it, doesn't get better than the way he took that. Hated conceding it but amazed to have actually seen it go in

Prunty is probably my favourite ever Dumbarton player. His contribution on the pitch for us was great, and 31 goals in 67 starts really speaks for itself, but it was the general way he acted that I loved. He was a proper model pro, a guy who gave it 100% every single time he took to the pitch - even when Ian Murray bizarrely decided he was a central midfielder. He could be raging, but remain disciplined. He'd fly into a tackle or tear into a linesman, get booked and then move on. You never really felt he was in any danger of being sent off.

He celebrated near enough every goal like he was a fan, and it was great to see how involved he got his wee man in the club as well - he's probably our most famous ever ballboy! He's a top guy too, who sorted me out with comps for an Airdrie game a few seasons ago after our game was called off completely off his own back.

Dang I miss him :(

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3 hours ago, Sonsteam of 08 said:

ST - Archie Campbell - Was a constant thorn in our side at Morton, a rapid wee guy who was excellent at riling our fans. I was delighted when we brought him in and, despite being rubbish in that hilarious Morton (MorTEN) team, thought he'd be a very decent asset. Aside from causing Peter Houston to explode after rifling one in from 25 yards against Falkirk he was bang average. Worked hard, but was literally woeful in front of goal.

The rapid decline of wee Archie always makes me sad.

A wee ned who could finish pretty well and was pretty quick. He shone with us because of Peter Weatherson I think - Spoonsy's experience of partnering a whole bunch of (roaster) poacher-type strikers definitely helped.

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GK - Tony Bullock

LB - Jonathan Brown
CB - Darren Cole
CB - Coll Donaldson
RB - Mike Mampuya

CM - Mark Millar
CM - Michal Habai
CM - Hugo Faria

LW - Danny Denholm 
ST - Jordyn Sheerin
RW - Spas Georgiev
 

Bench: Andy McNeil, Curtis Jones, Carlos Aurellio, Ricky Burke, Aaron Conway, David Luongo Rory Boulding (second spell)

 

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We had a team with Darren Cole, Gary Glen, Spas Georgiev, Hugo Faria, Jordan Sheeryn and Moses Duckrell. f**k sake :lol: the banter years indeed. The Stranraer play-off game summed that team up.

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I'd have Gavin Reilly as captain, ably supported by Paul Burns.

GK-Chris Smith, horrendously error prone, got even worse when he lost weight.

Df- Brad McKay, seemed like we were signing a solid lower half Premiership defender, looked shaky in league one and wasn't a patch on MacCausland.
Df- Shaun Rooney, came with big reviews from Queens Park as the next big thing. While being fairly tall he didn't bring much else.
Df- Jonathan Page, not sure if this really counts, I was under the impression he was alright at Motherwell but just had a bad season at Morton, wrong.
Df- Stuart Urquhart, the worst centre back we've had at the club, left Rangers as a youth to join someone down south, he was howling.

Mf- Paul Burns, not the worst player, just the most out of his depth footballer I've seen play for Dunfermline, he was miles of any standard required for the Premiership, couldn't tackle, dribble or pass particularly well. Very decent at getting knocked off the ball and running around allot.
Mf- Kyle McCausland, scored an absolute howitzer against Stenhousemuir, outwith that he proved he was useless at centre mid and centre back.
Mf- Andy Stirling, tore us apart for Stranraer, got subbed on and then off again playing for us.
Mf- Sorel Chemin, we signed the bloke from PsG and I swear we played him once for about ten minutes, kept trying to shoot from 30 yards.

St-Gavin Reilly, El capitano, apparently had issues at EEP, the biggest one being that he wasn't very good at anything.

St- Moffat-maybe controversial this, I thought his all around play was fantastic, however we brought in the leagues best goalscorer and he just simply couldn't score, confidence went through the floor.

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9 minutes ago, AMC13 said:

We had a team with Darren Cole, Gary Glen, Spas Georgiev, Hugo Faria, Jordan Sheeryn and Moses Duckrell. f**k sake :lol: the banter years indeed. The Stranraer play-off game summed that team up.

Aye and throw in Hippo and big Shagz tae, both good players but at times they could be frustratingly annoying, Hippo when he spat the dummy and started kicking opposition players (Dumbarton) and White when he'd miss a sitter from 2 yards out (Falkirk). Oh the fun we had that season.

 

On Bullock, he actually turned out ok after a shaky start when he kept running out of his box and conceding goals or being sent off for handling the ball outside the box. Good shot stopper and an excellent kicker of the ball. Needed to tie a bungee rope to him at first though to keep him in his own box.

Ludo Roy was a far worse keeper than McNeil or Bullock, can always remember him chucking the ball into his own net and sitting there shocked wondering WTF!!!!!

 

Oh and Greg Strong has to be in there as the slowest defender we've ever had, he's up there with Darren Cole as truly awful in defence. It was like watching an oil tanker slowing down and turning when Strong was on the pitch. FFS just thought of another one,  Alan Kernaghan, actually got worried watching him running about as it looked like he was going to have a heart attack he was that knackered looking. TBF he was assistant coach registered as a player and only played a few games when we were struggling with injuries and he was clearly unfit and too old at the time, never seen anyone so relieved for the final whistle, he was that knackered.

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One of my first "proper" footballing memories of when I first really started going to Livingston matches is Ludovic Roy chucking it in against the Pars. It hasn't got much better since then.

Going to have a think about it, too many complete duds (and fuds) to choose from. The Hungarian trio around 04/05 stick out as complete donkeys.

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Surely Guillermo Amor and Sergio Berti have to be in the list for Livi. There was an almighty build up ahead of Amor's arrival. He looked classy in his first game against Patrick Thistle but in our next game against Kilmarnock he was completely outplayed by Stevie Fulton. We never saw him again after that. Berti had similar hype but then spat on Richie Brittain in training and was told to gtf.

The players mentioned so far are definite dross, but if disappointment is the main factor here, these two stand out above everyone else for me.

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GK - Paul Gallacher

DL - Ian Harte! :lol:

CB - Andy Webster

CB - Ellis Plummer

RB - Mo Camara

LM - Greg Wylde

CM - Gary Harkins

CM - Eric Djemba Djemba

RM - Dougie Imrie

CF - Graham Fenton

CF - Christopher Wreh

 

All came (and in Harte's case didn't come) with varying levels of decent pedigree. 

All were exceptionally disappointing. Of the list, Camara would be a strong candidate for the outright worst XI in club history. A guy with 90 caps for his country, Champions league and Premiership experience. And he was horseshit. 

Christopher Wreh edged out Craig Dargo for the last spot on the basis than Dargo did rarely play and score. But Dargo is my first reserve in case Ian Harte decides to turn back at Gretna again. 

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10 hours ago, andylivi1 said:

When you say disappointing do u mean a player you expected more from ? 

If so last season Mark Millar was a real disappointment, expected him to run the show in league 1 but just didn't do enough and was one player I wasn't disappointed to see the back of from that very successful squad. 

I'm struggling to think of too many for us, but Mark Millar is an undoubted inclusion.  It's fair to say his career has failed to hit the heights of his time at Falkirk, and his fairly rapid decline started whilst on our books.  A shame really, almost certainly his attitude that has cost him a better career, rather than a lack of ability.

I wasn't expecting wonders when we signed John Baird, but he was an established forward at this level and I was happy we had signed him.  His performances weren't too bad for us either and I'm pretty certain had he stuck around he would have proven to be a decent enough player for us.  His inclusion in the "disappointing XI" is due to him spitting the dummy spectacularly, and forcing through his move to Falkirk.  It worked out pretty well in the end as he continued to be a good player for us even after joining Falkirk.  Every game he featured in against us he was such a seething mess that he did the square root of f**k all.  It will be interesting to see if these antics continue when Inverness visit us next month.

A more left-field choice as I really am struggling for ideas is Tom Parratt.  Signed by Gordon Chisholm at a time when we were really struggling to find a right-back, I had high hopes that a man who had won the league with a highly praised Hamilton side and then featured in the top division for them would be a good signing.  I don't recall him being especially awful, but it didn't work out and he was gone within 6 months.

I can't think of anyone else at the minute.  There are probably players we have taken on loan from SPL/Premiership sides that haven't lived up to the hype, although I'm struggling to think of any specific examples.  Experience teaches you that just because a player is on the books of a top division side, it doesn't mean they are top division quality, so even then their inclusion would be unfair.

It looks like Alan Martin will turn it round after an injury-hit introduction to our team.  Unless he turns it around Chris Kane might make this team in 7 months time.

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