Hall of Shame

When Joe first signed for the club all those years ago, it was considered to be a real coup! He showed great bravery in a crowded penalty area and a determination to train hard. We thought that the fumbling hands or the Legendary John Painter would be consigned to history.

For the first season or two, Joes athleticism between the sticks made a big difference in the squad, helping up to promotion and two cup semi final places.

However during that period and in the years to come, the constant whinging and moaning that would follow any incident on the pitch started to grate and you could be sure to hear Nathan yell, "shut the fuck up Joe" at least once per match.

With an unwillingness to admit mistakes, but an unerring tendancy to shuffle out to the exact spot on the pitch where opposition strikers could see the flashing neon sign that said "lob me", Joe soon found himself the butt of jokes in training, with all players giving it a go!!

Still his strengths as a keeper outweighed the weaknesses and the tendancy to a miserable sod were forgiven.

Assuming Joes position as an unemployed vagrant, the club took an extra special lenient view to payment of signing on fees and subs, to the point where he didn't pay a signing on fee for 3 years and subs only sporadically, claiming he was an "out of work musician!"

And still, allowances were made. Unfortunately for Joe, the final straw came at the end of the 2005/2006 season, a season that no player enjoyed.

Having had a poor run despite some reasonable football, the confidence and moral of the team was low. Joe's moaning had reached new fever pitch levels and the relationship between defence and keeper was strained. Attendance at training was poor and towards the end of the season, some long term injuries left us short of numbers, with often only 11 players available for selection and some of those carrying injuries.

With three games of the season to go and 1st Division survival up for grabs, Joe shocked the team by sending an extremely inflammatory email regarding the performance of the team that season. Having been a contributary factor to a defence that conceeded an unusually high number of goals and poor a very poor attendee at training, Joe proceeded to slag of his team mates and proclaim that he would be taking an early break and would not be turning up for the last three matches. He specifically refused to, and i quote "take one for the team" as he thought all those old cliches were bollocks!

The uproar from the team was riotous!! A lot of harsh emailsl flew back and forth and the Manager decided to confront Joe. Again showing a very lenient attitude, it was bought to his attention that he had been given countless advantages over other players, in terms of his moodiness/attitude, lack of payment, lack of training etc and the he, more than anyone, did in fact owe his team mates.

Having discussed this back and forth for a day, Joe seemed to accept that he was in the wrong to lash out verbally. He claimed injury for the forth coming game, which was accepted as a genuine excuse, but promised to attend for the final two games of the season.

I guess unsurprisingly, for those last two games, Joe did not turn up. There was no phone call, no text, no email. Nothing to indicate he would not be there.

The final game of the season was the killer one for the Eagles. Having got to this point in the season, where we had missed Nick for almost the entire year, Luke for a good part of it, Matt had been carrying a back injury for the whole season and Pete & Alex's work commitments taking them overseas, a point would still have secured our place in the top division.

Emails went around stressing the importance of the match, texts were sent to Joe to ensure he attended, but come the day of the match he was a no show. his mobile was switched off and it was clear he had no intention of joining his team mates in the struggle they faced.

As it is, for only the second time ever, the Eagles played a match with 9 men. The fact that we lost 3-1, with the game tied at 1-1 for 80 minutes and Tom missing a chance to put us 2-1 up, just goes to show the great fighting and battling spirit that the team of 2005/2006 had. Unfortunately, when it came to the crunch, Joe was the player found wanting. He couldn't stand up and be counted along side people that were supposed to be his team mates.

Rumoured now to be playing as an outfield player for another team, you have to wonder what sort of character he is going to show should they struggle? Toys out of the pram??

Joe was and still is a nice guy, but if you can't stand up and take the shit times that come along with the good, then how can you be a team player?

Joe Dowling, keeper extraordinaire. RIP.