Randell Williams joins Exeter City from Watford

[Antony Moxey]

No wonder he wants to leave.

He does? When did he hand in a transfer request?

 

[STURTZ]

He does? When did he hand in a transfer request?

He hasn't!!!? Unbridled joy!

 

[STURTZ]

As an aside and to elaborate on my "dubious" assist comment, what is an "assist" anyway, never heard of it before around 1985, always used to be a player may have "made" the goal, not the same thing. Bloke beats eight players plays the ball into the area, it hits some numbskull center forward and rebounds to a player who scores. Who gets the assist? The donkey up front I suspect. It's all to do with having to give somebody a point for their team in one of the national newspaper fantasy football leagues and little to do with ability or performance. In his position Bowman doesn't score as many as you'd hope and "assists" even less I suspect, and yet we all know his importance to our play.

 

[iscalad]

Ask Pete USA, resident expert on assists

 

[Red Bill]

As an aside and to elaborate on my "dubious" assist comment, what is an "assist" anyway, never heard of it before around 1985, always used to be a player may have "made" the goal, not the same thing. Bloke beats eight players plays the ball into the area, it hits some numbskull center forward and rebounds to a player who scores. Who gets the assist? The donkey up front I suspect. It's all to do with having to give somebody a point for their team in one of the national newspaper fantasy football leagues and little to do with ability or performance. In his position Bowman doesn't score as many as you'd hope and "assists" even less I suspect, and yet we all know his importance to our play.

Couldn't agree more, it's a horrible Americanism for geeky statisticians as far as i'm concerned. Sounds like it might have come from American football to me. I personally don't remember it being used in football until relatively recently. Like you Sturtz I grew saying someone "made" a goal, but that was reserved for someone who made a direct impact on a goal, not simply the last person to touch it before the scorer.

 

[The Proper Chap]

I think assist stats are useful.

Look in the premier league, Harry Kane has the most with 11, next in line are Grealish and Bruno Fernandes, to a certain extent this is what you would expect, i.e. these three players create lots of chances.

Dress it up all you want and ignore the stats if it makes you feel better however Randell Williams return so far this season of 1 assist is very disappointing.

 

[John William]

And penalties should only count for half a goal.

 

[dontpassback]

The only assist that interests me is when the opposition keeper is picking the ball out of his net and punting it back to the semi circle to assist with the restart !

 

[IndoMike]

So you guys are saying you'd prefer that our players had no assists?

PS. I don't like the term "assist" either but you can't have everything you want.

 

[John William]

So you guys are saying you'd prefer that our players had no assists?

PS. I don't like the term "assist" either but you can't have everything you want.

"But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need"