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Post by scoob on Feb 10, 2011 1:33:28 GMT
Steve came to mind when a programme was on TV tonight about keepers. I did a search and was disappointed to see that Wikipedia only had a little over one line about him even though he played lots of games for us, Newcastle and Huddersfield. I seem to remember that he played in many important games for us during Jim Smith's first spell at the club. Can anyone add a bit more info to Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hardwick
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Post by baldy on Feb 10, 2011 8:12:00 GMT
Steve came to mind when a programme was on TV tonight about keepers. I did a search and was disappointed to see that Wikipedia only had a little over one line about him even though he played lots of games for us, Newcastle and Huddersfield. I seem to remember that he played in many important games for us during Jim Smith's first spell at the club. Can anyone add a bit more info to Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_HardwickThe best keeper this club has ever had and better than Barron, Burton, Whitehead, Judge, Clarke or any other Oxford keeper you care to mention. There must be one but I cannot think of a glaring error Hardwick made and we were plying our trade in the top two divisions in most of his time. He was a rock solid keeper who kicked well, was agile and as good at collecting routine crosses as he was making point blank saves. It always makes me smile when a lot of fans hail players like Paul Reece because he managed to build a rapport with fans but truth is keepers like Reece, literally, were not fit to lace Hardwicks boots. If I was a manager players like Hardwick would be a dream - comes in, does his work to a very high standard and then keeps a low profile. Solid and unfussy - great keeper.
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Post by McVicar on Feb 10, 2011 8:21:48 GMT
Hardwick was a top keeper, from memory though he wasn't really a fans' favourite - in fact I can remember Wimbledon away when he turned round and gave some Oxford fans a gobful as they had been moaning about something or other. But in my eyes yes he was right up there with the top keepers to have played for the club.
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Post by ox4eva on Feb 10, 2011 8:53:54 GMT
Good keeper, one of the best to ever play for OUFC !
Anyone know where he is these days?
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Post by scoob on Feb 10, 2011 9:43:24 GMT
I agree with Baldy. I did not see much of Roy Burton so can't really comment on him or any other Hardwick predecessors but I feel that Hardwick was the best keeper in my time following the club regularly (i.e. since 1981/2). I remember him making many top class saves against top class opponents especially in our famous cup runs.
Also agree about the profile of players. Trevor Hebberd was a similar character and I feel that his is the best/most influential player I have seen play for the club.
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Post by bicesterox on Feb 10, 2011 11:34:53 GMT
After Judgy & Hucker [awful] had been playing quite a bit Steve came in from the cold and had a blinding game against someone, may have been the win at West Ham or at home v Everton, gone blank on this one at the minute, but he really did well.
As has been said, not a fans favorite like Burton but a bloody good keeper
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Post by Long John Silver on Feb 10, 2011 12:02:44 GMT
I think he was an 'ever-present' during our back to back winning seasons of 83-4 and 84-5. Definitely right up there amongst our best ever keepers.
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Post by sihath on Feb 10, 2011 12:16:54 GMT
After Judgy & Hucker [awful] had been playing quite a bit Steve came in from the cold and had a blinding game against someone, may have been the win at West Ham or at home v Everton, gone blank on this one at the minute, but he really did well. As has been said, not a fans favorite like Burton but a bloody good keeper If we were kicking into the wind Hucker would struggle to kick the ball out of his own penalty area. I think he is possibly the worst kicker of a ball I have ever seen.
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Post by grb on Feb 10, 2011 15:05:30 GMT
After Judgy & Hucker [awful] had been playing quite a bit Steve came in from the cold and had a blinding game against someone, may have been the win at West Ham or at home v Everton, gone blank on this one at the minute, but he really did well. As has been said, not a fans favorite like Burton but a bloody good keeper If we were kicking into the wind Hucker would struggle to kick the ball out of his own penalty area. I think he is possibly the worst kicker of a ball I have ever seen. My first ever Oxford match was against Watford in 87ish and Hucker was in goal for us. I remember when we had a goal kick one of our defenders had to take them for him.
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Post by hairy on Feb 10, 2011 16:03:04 GMT
The only thing I can remember about Steve Hardwick is at an Oxford open day in about 84 ish he picked me out of a crowd of kids to go on his shoulders holding the canon division two trophy, made the Oxford mail and I have still got the black and white photo and press cutting. Bit vague about the dates as I was only about 6.
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Post by dabigfella on Feb 10, 2011 16:44:34 GMT
Steve came to mind when a programme was on TV tonight about keepers. I did a search and was disappointed to see that Wikipedia only had a little over one line about him even though he played lots of games for us, Newcastle and Huddersfield. I seem to remember that he played in many important games for us during Jim Smith's first spell at the club. Can anyone add a bit more info to Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hardwick The best keeper this club has ever had and better than Barron, Burton, Whitehead, Judge, Clarke or any other Oxford keeper you care to mention. There must be one but I cannot think of a glaring error Hardwick made and we were plying our trade in the top two divisions in most of his time. He was a rock solid keeper who kicked well, was agile and as good at collecting routine crosses as he was making point blank saves. It always makes me smile when a lot of fans hail players like Paul Reece because he managed to build a rapport with fans but truth is keepers like Reece, literally, were not fit to lace Hardwicks boots. If I was a manager players like Hardwick would be a dream - comes in, does his work to a very high standard and then keeps a low profile. Solid and unfussy - great keeper. Agree with all of that except for Roy Burton. Maybe you could argue they were on a par, but Steve wasn't better that's for sure.
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Post by scoob on Feb 10, 2011 16:57:53 GMT
Now I can get into Rage Online I have some stats about Steve:
First Played 26/2/1983 Last Played 6/2/1988
Total games: 196 Clean Sheets: 57 (29%)
He averaged 39 games a season so and it looks like he played virtually every game from Feb 1983 to 14 Dec 1985 then he had a big gap and only played in the 6-0 defeat at Liverpool on 22 March 1986. Then played virtually every game from his return on 29 December 1986 to 18 April 1987. Then he played just 6 games of the 87/88 season before he left.
He played in most of the big cup games but not the League Cup Finals nor the 4 Semi-Finals (Villa & Luton).
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2011 18:17:24 GMT
I think Roy Burton was the best I have ever seen. I can't remember him shipping in more than 5 goals in any match. Wasn't it Steve Hardwick got recalled to play at Liverpool in place of Judge and let in 6. Judge also saved two penalties at home to Manure which we went on to lose 2-4
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Post by berliner on Feb 10, 2011 20:12:46 GMT
After Judgy & Hucker [awful] had been playing quite a bit Steve came in from the cold and had a blinding game against someone, may have been the win at West Ham or at home v Everton, gone blank on this one at the minute, but he really did well. As has been said, not a fans favorite like Burton but a bloody good keeper If we were kicking into the wind Hucker would struggle to kick the ball out of his own penalty area. I think he is possibly the worst kicker of a ball I have ever seen. Lance Key was definitely worse at kicking than Hucker, Whitehead also gets a mention for his unerring accuracy in kicking it into row C around the halfway line...every game at least once, seriously!
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Post by baldy on Feb 10, 2011 20:25:28 GMT
The best keeper this club has ever had and better than Barron, Burton, Whitehead, Judge, Clarke or any other Oxford keeper you care to mention. There must be one but I cannot think of a glaring error Hardwick made and we were plying our trade in the top two divisions in most of his time. He was a rock solid keeper who kicked well, was agile and as good at collecting routine crosses as he was making point blank saves. It always makes me smile when a lot of fans hail players like Paul Reece because he managed to build a rapport with fans but truth is keepers like Reece, literally, were not fit to lace Hardwicks boots. If I was a manager players like Hardwick would be a dream - comes in, does his work to a very high standard and then keeps a low profile. Solid and unfussy - great keeper. Agree with all of that except for Roy Burton. Maybe you could argue they were on a par, but Steve wasn't better that's for sure. Totally disagree. Hard wick was superior to Burton in just about every respect bar popularity. You have to remove the romance when assessing Burton. I saw him make some miraculous saves but also saw a fair few howlers from him but you never saw that inconsistency from Hardwick. I would say the only aspect where Burton comes close in in his speed off the line. Burton was excellent at reading a situation and using the full area of his box to pick the ball off an attackers toes but Hardwick was in a different class in terms of bread and butter keeping - crosses, shot stopping, distribution.
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Post by scoob on Feb 10, 2011 23:24:13 GMT
I think Roy Burton was the best I have ever seen. I can't remember him shipping in more than 5 goals in any match. Wasn't it Steve Hardwick got recalled to play at Liverpool in place of Judge and let in 6. Judge also saved two penalties at home to Manure which we went on to lose 2-4 How many games did Roy Burton play against Division One playersthough ? I don't think you can compare Roy's matches against Hardwick who, for a significant part of his Oxford career, was playing at the pinnacle of English football with Division Three defenders in front of him (sorry Shots & Rambo were fantastic but not on a par with many of the players at the other end of the pitch). The most noticable difference when we went up to Div One was that strikers needed far less chances per goal than in Div 2. There will always be debate about who was best and there is no definite answer. Roy played a huge number of games and was between the sticks during some successful periods but Hardwick was there during our most successful period.
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Post by Oxford Nondie on Feb 11, 2011 8:25:53 GMT
Top goalie and not a bad wicket keeper at cricket. Played for a top club - Oxford Nondescripts CC
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Post by cowleylad on Feb 11, 2011 8:46:46 GMT
He was in goal at the 1st game i attended at the manor, i thought he was very good, i dont know why he wasnt as popular as other keepers we've had
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Post by baldy on Feb 11, 2011 9:06:45 GMT
He was in goal at the 1st game i attended at the manor, i thought he was very good, i dont know why he wasnt as popular as other keepers we've hadHe didn't play to the crowd, thats why. Thats why people hold players like Reece in esteem, nothing to do with his keeping but he just built a rapport with the fans. Personally, I say **** the rapport with the fans. Give me a miserable b****** who keeps the ball out of the net any day.
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Post by malcolmsmoustache on Feb 11, 2011 14:29:59 GMT
Hardwick was the best organiser of a back 4 we have ever had. Technically, he wasn't great- he was a bit short, and used to flap at crosses, but he was always at the defence, shouting and telling them where to go, and what to do. The best keeper we have had was Phil Whitehead......he was very good, but was a bit quiet...
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Post by blox21 on Feb 11, 2011 16:14:32 GMT
Agree, whitehead would be the best . Steve was a very good keeper but then again look at the defense in front of him
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