Jabo vs Pistol Pete? No Contest…

I saw a post on the infamous Yellowboard yesterday questioning whether Jabo Ibehre is actually any better a striker than ‘Pistol’ Peter Thompson.

I suppose, in goal-scoring terms, it’s a fair point to raise. They both seem equally as scared to shoot, they both aren’t really renowned as goalscorers (well, Unibond level Irish League Football aside).

So in that sense, you could argue either way.

But you have to be joking if you seriously think Thompson is BETTER or more useful than Jabo. In fact, you’d be deluded to think they’re equally as bad.

Yes, yesterday we saw the worst of Jabo in his inability to place the round thing in the net. But how many times have we launched attacks this season and brought wingers into play through Ibehre?

He comes back to defend, wins the ball, uses his STRENGTH to hold defenders off, and we attack.

Notice the emphasis on STRENGTH. Something Peter Thompson had little or none of in footballing terms, against big League One hoof-ball defenders.

Ask yourself, if Paul Huntington and Johnny Mullins had been hoofing it up to Thompson instead of Ibehre yesterday, would we have been launching another attack? Or would we, as we so often saw with the Irishman, see the ball bounce off him and come straight back at us? Yeah, I’d say the latter as well.

Probably 10 out of 10 League One defenders would rather play against Thompson if you asked them. Why? Because he doesn’t win the headers, and he doesn’t have the knack of getting into goalscoring positions and getting in behind. Well, we saw none of it in his time here.

He ran himself into the ground…but I would if I was playing for County.

Ibehre runs and runs, and wins the ball. And holds it up. And brings people into play. Utilises it well.

Thompson does none of those things.

And if we’re asking about the goalscoring…how many times did you see Thompson miss an open net or blaze it over after being one-on-one with the keeper? Never. Is that a good thing? No.

It simply means Ibehre gets himself into those positions and yes, most of the times he appears to miss the target. Thompson never got into those positions to miss!

This may well turn out to be pointless, as when our relegation is confirmed, it’s conceivable that Thompson returns from his Linfield loan and Ibehre gets sent back to MK Dons.

And, when/if that happens, we’ll surely be bemoaning the lack of a target man up front. But at least Thompson runs eh?