[Ale and the Vale Podcast]

On 23/12/2021 at 22:30, Joe B said:

That wasn't because of Hughes though.

Pope was scoring at such a ludicrous rate (I think 20 in his first 21) that he was on for a 45 goal season and would have shattered records. It wasn't sustainable and Micky knew it. Pope was going to dip, and he did, before pulling it back vs Cheltenham.

Add to that, JMW and Vincent were in the form of their careers; they'd never played as well as that before (or since) and the prospect of it continuing for 46 games was impossible. 

We needed someone to come in and guarantee 1 in 2, adding a bit of promotion experience to the side. If we hadn't got Hughes in, Pope's dip still would have occurred as he simply wasn't going to keep scoring at that level, and we'd have had no reliable other options.

Pope's never really scored goals as part of a front two, always ended up being the foil for the likes of ALF, Vaughan and Rico, so you can't really use those seasons as evidence he couldn't keep up his goalscoring in 12/13. He'd finally been given license to take up goalscoring positions unchallenged and I see no reason why that couldn't continue to equal goals.

 

According to Hughes he was a Smurf signing, not an Adams one so that doesn't really support the idea that Adams felt Pope couldn't keep up his scoring form. I've no read Adams' book though. 

[Ale and the Vale Podcast]

1 hour ago, darren1810 said:

Hughes equivalent. 

If Proctor and Wilson are still gonna be injured for most of Jan then obviously we need goals, but with Hughes in the side in 12/13 we went from contenders to win the league to barely scraping 3rd so I'm not sure he's the best example.