Ulloa v Peter Ward

[Goldstone Rapper]

Ward never really cut it in the top flight. Let's see how Ulloa does next season.

He did in his first season in the top flight. Sixteen League goals for a side finishing four places above relegation is nothing to be sniffed at.

The thing that made the difference in 1979/80 is that Ward had an intelligent, strong striking partner in Ray Clarke. Before Clarke was signed around November 1979, Ward was struggling for goals in Division One (2 goals in 12 League games). However, partnered with Clarke, Ward hit fourteen League goals in thirty top flight games. Once Clarke left for Newcastle, Ward was back to another lean spell in the top flight (1 goal in 11 League games in 1980/81).

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Player comparisons aside, Ward's story is certainly the most romantic of Albion tales; signed from non-league and played a major part in our greatest period-taking us from D3 to D1 with an England u21 debut hat-trick enroute.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Ward never really cut it in the top flight. Let's see how Ulloa does next season.

16 goals in our first session in the top flight. I'd say that was pretty good in a struggling team. I'd advise anyone who was too young to have seen him play in his heyday to read the biography. It's amazing to re-live some of those moments and you really get some perspective of how much of a phenomenon he was. It's not an exaggeration to suggest he was back page news often in the national press. Saint and Greavsie, football focus, all were clamoring for Wardy to play for England. As to why he didn't achieve more. Who knows. Perhaps the lifestyle didn't suit him, perhaps he didn't get the breaks. It was certainly a mistake to go to forest.

In my mind, he was the most gifted player to play for Albion until Vicente (with all his failings) came along. Players like Lawrenson are perhaps better because they are consistently class. Wardy was like no other we had for over 30 years since the mid seventies. Inconsistent, sometimes quiet, but as already mentioned, worth the admission price on his own if on form as his sheer skill and ability made worshippers of most of our fans and indeed made the game the beautiful game.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

16 goals in our first session in the top flight. I'd say that was pretty good in a struggling team.

Add the 7 goals in 33 games for Forest and that's his total top flight career and goal haul though. I think it's fair to say this isn't brilliant. You could argue Zamora has done better. He was fantastic to watch, my boyhood hero and as I say above his is the most romantic of stories....but it did tail off quickly when we hit the top flight.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Add the 7 goals in 33 games for Forest and that's his total top flight career and goal haul though. I think it's fair to say this isn't brilliant. You could argue Zamora has done better. He was fantastic to watch, my boy-hood hero and as I say above his is the most romantic of stories....but it did tail off quickly when we hit the top flight.

You are forgetting the 1 goal in 11 League games for Brighton at the start of the 1980/81 season.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

You are forgetting the 1 goal in 11 League games for Brighton at the start of the 1980/81 season.

Doh. I forgot he also came back in '82/'83 and scored 2 in 16.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Would it be blasphemous to suggest that Wardy might be a little bit overrated by Albion fans?

Something tells me we will have players of far superior ability come to the club in the coming years... Maybe Ulloa already is...

Blasphemy ?

Possibly not.

Idiocy ?

Certainly.

If Ulloa gets anywhere near enough to be considered able to lace Wardies' boots,I'll have pickled jockstrap and a pint of lager for breakfast.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

With this man as a striking partner, Wardy was a top Division One striker, getting about 1 goal every two games:

Without him, Wardy was a mere '1 goal every five to ten games' kind of top flight striker.

The Ward-Clarke partnership that kept Albion in the top flight should be as celebrated as the Ward-Mellor one.

 

[perseus]

Could Ulloa be a legend in a similar mould to Ward? Those goals against Palace and the first amex hatrick mean he's at least on the path

Nope, Kazenga Lualua is the one. Goals against Wolves had a the touch of the Wardy about them. Wolves should also know this!

 

[Pooroldwoogie]

It's really easy for me but I have the honour / luck / oldness of actually watching him play - always has and always will be for me the best ever ! HE SHOT HE SCORED !

 

[blue2]

If you never saw him play you have NO IDEA of how good he was, the few video clips of his goals don't really do him justice. He was worth the admission money on his own and he's still THE most exciting player I've ever seen play for the Albion. Having said that he never really 'trained on' as they say in racing circles, he pretty much peaked by the time he was 26 and we definitely saw the best of him. When he left us (for Forest) he'd been in and out of the team and there was a large body of opinion that thought it was for the best as some people thought he'd been 'found out' by the better defenders in the 1st division. Having said that we weren't exactly enthused by him being replaced by a Man U reject (Andy Ritchie)

100% agree with this post

 

[Brovion]

...

The thing that made the difference in 1979/80 is that Ward had an intelligent, strong striking partner in Ray Clarke. Before Clarke was signed around November 1979, Ward was struggling for goals in Division One (2 goals in 12 League games). However, partnered with Clarke, Ward hit fourteen League goals in thirty top flight games. Once Clarke left for Newcastle, Ward was back to another lean spell in the top flight (1 goal in 11 League games in 1980/81).

That is a very good point, Ward was SO much better when he had someone to play off. Originally it was 'spider' Mellor and then, as you say, in the 1st division for a while we had the largely-forgotten Ray Clarke who was a class act. (I think we got him from Bruges or somewhere). Maybe Wardie would have continued to improve if he'd always had the benefit of a similar player alongside him?

In the context of this thread it's 'wrong' to compare Ward and Ulloa as they are completely different players - Ulloa is more the Mellor/Clarke figure. Perhaps the nearest match to the person playing the 'Ward' role in the current team is Barnes! (And no I'm not comparing the two!)

 

[Seagull58]

Would it be blasphemous to suggest that Wardy might be a little bit overrated by Albion fans?

Something tells me we will have players of far superior ability come to the club in the coming years... Maybe Ulloa already is...

I don't think Wardie was ever quite the same player after he got that virus and was in hospital for weeks just when he was first selected fro England. It was described as a "mystery" virus at the time and it did seem to put the brakes on his career.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

So then it's way too soon to compare a NEW Albion player to Wardy. If their count is the same - clearly Ulloa hasn't consistently banged 'em in either.

Club scoring record for a season?

I agree. It certainly is too soon to be deciding who is better. As others have pointed out, Ward was a very different player to the kind of striker Ulloa is. It seems Ward was much better at dribbling fast at defenders and turning them inside out, with the ball appearing to be tied to his feet, whereas Ulloa has more menace in the air. Both are/were excellent with their back to goal.

My points about Ward aren't somehow an attempt to build a case that Ulloa is a superior striker, but an effort to get beyond some of the myth surrounding Ward's time with us. Although he is quite rightly celebrated, he certainly were not a one-man team. Looking purely at goal scoring, in the 1978/79 season when we won promotion to Division One, Maybank and Poskett each scored 10 League goals, the same total as Ward. All were behind Brian Horton who (including penalties) got 11.

 

[BLOCK F]

Would it be blasphemous to suggest that Wardy might be a little bit overrated by Albion fans?

Something tells me we will have players of far superior ability come to the club in the coming years... Maybe Ulloa already is...

I t would indeed be blasphemous!!In large portions.

 

[Westdene Wonder]

Wardy was the best striker we had by far, to even compare him with Ullo is an insult, to complete our stadium a statue of Wardy would be perfect.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Wardy was the best striker we had by far, to even compare him with Ullo is an insult, to complete our stadium a statue of Wardy would be perfect.

I'll ask you this same question in 2 years time after ULLOA has destroyed the Premiership and Argentina and Spain are fighting for his nationality

 

[Commander]

Wardy was the best striker we had by far, to even compare him with Ullo is an insult, to complete our stadium a statue of Wardy would be perfect.

We don't need a statue, he seems to be at the Amex most weeks getting drinks bought for him.