Can anyone remember when Martin Devaney

Made European Champion Gareth Bale look average?

 

His crossing was fantastic, a lot of the time he had the perfect balance of pace and precision.

Obviously the ones we remember most were those at Anfield and that one against Chelsea but he put them in pretty regularly to be fair.

His dress sense was a bit dodgy though, used to see him in town shopping and he stood out like a sore thumb.

 

He made him look worse than average! He gave him a torrid time all afternoon. Didn't Bale get subbed in that game? After Disco had tied him in knots.

 

I remember it well. Disco tore him to shreds that day. Remember thinking "What is the big fuss about that guy?" Fair enough though, he has certainly shown it since!

 

I remember Bradford away a while back (think we won 5-2 or something...)

Devaney ran the full back ragged and he was subbed off 20 mins in. Fantastic on his day!

 

Apparently he "lit up Lisbon" according to the BBC headline. They must have been watching a different game to me.

(Apologise if I sound bitter. Just am a bit disappointed at the moment, so may have a more objective view later)

 

Wasn't Bale subbed after about 35 minutes?

 

The day when Bradford subbed their full back was 0-0. We played them again in the cup soon after and won.

 

The performance from Devaney that day was one of the best individual performances I have ever seen. He carried us after Howard got sent off early.

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Best performance by a winger I think I've seen. How it finished 0-0 I'll never know.

 

No, I think you have it right, struggled to achieve much before his fantastic header, but then Athletico were being effective at backs to the wall.
Would love to know where 5mins came from and there should probably have been more than that in ET 2nd half due to the huge amount of time spent high fiving and flexing muscle for the cameras after each goal and the mini pitch invasion!

 

It was around that time Southampton (George Burley, I think) realised Bale wasn't a full back.

 

I was talking to my brother about this last night. 2007/08 season I think and ended in a 2-2 draw.

My memory is that Disco ripped him to shreds during the first half and that we were 2-0 up at half time, including a JCR stunner. Bale was subbed at half time and then they tore us apart second half. In the end we were lucky to get a point. I've rarely seen two such different halves. Maybe the other one that sticks out for me was under Jim Ileyout when we were beating Exeter 3-0 at HT and lost 4-3!

Didn't Disco also score the winner at S'ton earlier in the season in added on time?

 

Just goes to show that not ALL lower league players are rubbish. I used to watch Martin Devaney playing for Cheltenham Town before they got into the Football League. He didn't particularly stand out even at non league level but he certainly came on in leaps and bounds after he moved up north. Like most I was a bit surprised when we signed him but what a player he turned into.

So before we all turn our noses up when a "lower league" player is being looked at it's always good to wait a bit, and give them a chance. Plenty of gems playing at a lower level than us. It's just a question of finding them

 

Half time

http://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=43700&season_id=136

 

Devaney actually signed for Watford from Cheltenham, then for us only a month later IIRC.

 

Hold on a cotton pickin' minute
Why do you keep bringing up the Devaney/Bale game?
All I would say now is.... look where Devaney is now, and look where Bale is now.
Just goes to show that all we can do as BFC fans is cherry pick our favourite isolated moments and live off them for years and years.

 

Like the supporters of most clubs then?