Lewis Hallford

[BartonRaz]

Strange interview....

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/football/s ... -22296849/

[Jemfy]

"Paul Driver was my youth-team manager at Rushden and said if he was in charge of the first team he would have kept me at the club.

"But the gaffer Justin Edinburgh just didn't want me. I hope I haven't run out of time to make it in football."

This strikes me as very odd. I though Hallford was good every time I saw him. I thought him and Hilliard were some great prospects as wingers and both have been allowed to go rather than given a bit of a shot. Hilliard had a contract and must have failed to do well enough, but Hallford should have been given a season to try and break into the side IMO, especially with such pace. I remember Lawrence Lambley who wasn't the best technical player but on his few appearances that stupidly fast pace gave him so much time to make a cross that it made up for it.

[davealbon]

Hallford didn't progress anywhere near as much as Aynsley McDonald or Nabil Shariff last season, although the season before I would have given him a contract ahead of Shariff. Unfortunately we can't afford to offer contracts to every good prospect in the youth team, and IMO Aynsley and Nabil were definitely the top two from last season's second years. Also, I believe Raunds raised some concerns over Hallford's attitude when he was there on loan last season.
I'm sure Drives would have kept quite a few of the released players if he were manager, having worked with them for so many years, but it's just not feasible.

Hilliard was more of an attacking central midfielder than a winger, and was definitely the pick of the previous season's second years. By all accounts he did well during his loan spell at Hemel, but he spent most of his time at Banbury on the bench. I was a little surprised to see him released, but when you think back to the likes of Burgess, Mills, Bell, Jacko and Dempster, they were all making fairly regular appearances in the first team at 18 years old, and Tommo was a regular at 16! I'd expect Hilliard to be really pushing at the age of 19, but it would appear he's not up to it yet.

As for Lambley, to be brutally honest he was crap, and I was amazed that we kept hold of him for as long as we did.

[Oundle Diamond #2]

Hallford was always the one that stood out from that age group. At under 13/14, he was the best player on the pitch every single week, and continued to develop as one of the best along with Aynsley.

I think he struggled this year, as they break into mens football, to cope with his lack of height. He is about 5ft4, and very thin so therefore would just get bullied in matches, so that's why I feel Edinburgh hasn't given him a contract.

Hilliard looked decent last year, but Justin knows best!

[davealbon]

Hallford was always the one that stood out from that age group. At under 13/14, he was the best player on the pitch every single week, and continued to develop as one of the best along with Aynsley.

I think he struggled this year, as they break into mens football, to cope with his lack of height. He is about 5ft4, and very thin so therefore would just get bullied in matches, so that's why I feel Edinburgh hasn't given him a contract.

Hilliard looked decent last year, but Justin knows best!

He's not that short! I'd guess at at least 5' 8", there were plenty of shorter players in the youth team last year, and at least one in the first team. And it didn't do Mark Byrne any harm being the size of a garden gnome! ;)