Ben Mackey signs for Hemel

Ben Mackey has signed for Hemel Hempstead Town, according to their website.

Best wishes for the future Ben!

Source: http://www.hemelfc.com/news/big-ben-signs-for-the-tudors-955770.html

Distance? Money? Can't say that it'd be for any other reasons. Right, let's get that lad from Halesowen.

Can't say I'm entirely surprised - it never seemed to me that he quite settled despite scoring a few goals. Nobody necessarily to blame for that - just one of those things.

I'd be more upset if I was a St Neots supporter, given the reasons he stated for leaving them in the first place.

What it does suggest is that we're not going to "break the bank" over players if they get better offers or if they don't want to stay. We're not going for "promotion at all costs" and risking the future of the club at the same time. No doubt some people will say it shows a lack of ambition to lose a proven goalscorer to a club that's likely to be among our main rivals for the Title this season (hope it's not too presumptuous to talk our hopes up like that) but on balance I would rather know that we are balancing the books in the long term.

Hopefully there will be another player (or players) coming in - whether the one Jack has in mind or somebody else.

Yeah, I did find it slightly ironic how he left St Neots to move to a club closer to Leamo. And now is moving to one nearly double the distance than Stour. . How bizarre!

Safe to say, we do need a striker!

I think I'll keep my opinions to myself on this one.....don't want to upset some people.

Tricky Tree wrote:I think I'll keep my opinions to myself on this one.....don't want to upset some people.

Why would you be upsetting anybody? Your opinion is just your opinion. We can all disagree but if we get upset it's our problem, not yours!

While he probably has gone for the money, I dont always think this should be frowned upon. We dont know his personal situation and many of us may move jobs (especially if we do not have a great deal of loyalty towards them due to time we have worked there) if we are offered more money.

While he was good in some games, he was equally ineffective in others and I would be inclined to think it was as much us playing 2 strikers in a 4-4-2 formation that turned the corner than the actual personal presence of Mackey. We have lost better players than him and coped. Like TRM says i think it is good that we are not breaking the bank to keep players.

Love the fact that Hemel fans dont believe he has chosen them due to the money though - head in the sand!!

No.....he chose them because he's a life long fan of the club and they are on his doorstep.
In my opinion(my opinion)he's a money grabbing get and we don't particularly need him so long as we actually buy a striker and don't resort to playing a pretend 4 4 2.
I can't understand why people particularly feel the need to wish him luck...he was hardly a stour stalwart was he??!!

Tricky Tree wrote:No.....he chose them because he's a life long fan of the club and they are on his doorstep.
In my opinion(my opinion)he's a money grabbing get and we don't particularly need him so long as we actually buy a striker and don't resort to playing a pretend 4 4 2.
I can't understand why people particularly feel the need to wish him luck...he was hardly a stour stalwart was he??!!

I doubt we'll "buy" a striker, or any other player for that matter. Far more likely to pick one up who was non-contract at his previous club or who is out of contract. Not many players at our level are on two-year contracts, so very few are under contract at this time of year.

As for wishing him luck, I certainly don't wish him (or any player that leaves us) ill. It would suit me if he didn't score a single goal for Hemel as it would benefit Stour if that happened, but in that respect I see him no differently from any other striker at any other club. If he wants to take another "job" for more money then I go along with Jane. Why shouldn't he? If I was offered more money (perhaps substantially more) to move to another employer from one I'd only been with for two months I'd be seriously tempted at the very least.

TRM being unusually pedantic over my " buy" slip up.

Tricky Tree wrote:TRM being unusually pedantic over my " buy" slip up.

Yeah, fair enough. I realised it was probably unintentional, but just thought it was worth mentioning in the context of budgets and the overstretching thereof. No needle was intended!

None taken.

Firstly I don't think we will get the Halesowen player Jack refers to due to travel as previous said in another thread but there is always a chance I suppose.

My personal opinion of Ben was that he had a good first game but after that he didn't really shine in another match which I think the management also saw by bringing him off in the semi final for another striker when we needed a goal.

He seemed to take time to control a ball and lay it off to other players which is not our style when we are playing well.

For me he is one player we should be able to replace better than others so I would say no major loss.

One question as a club did we sign him just to get us promoted if that could have happened. If we did it didn't work.

Also I hope we didn't pay him more than any other player because we have certainly had better players than him.

My guess he was on a basic wage and on a goal bonus,he celebrated each goal as though paying of a bit of a mortgage!!

stoursi wrote:
One question as a club did we sign him just to get us promoted if that could have happened. If we did it didn't work.

It didn't, but I'm glad we tried. Would you rather we hadn't?

Disappointed to see him go, but not surprised. I'd be surprised if he wasn't our top earner, so hopefully frees up some budget to get in more than one replacement. That is the key now though - we can't afford to wait till halfway through the season to get it right again.

One possible reason for moving to Hemel is that his best mate, Ollie Thorne has also signed for them.

See Hemel have signed his mate Ollie Thorne too. Hope their money doesn't run out too soon!! As others have said, I hope we continue to do as well as we can without spending more than we can afford.

More or less a guaranteed 25-30 goals a season already leaves us with a massive hole to fill next season.

Very,very disappointed with this news but Mackey is a non league mercenary,he'll alway's go where the Dollar is.

To hit the ground running rather than stalling until February like we did last season we need to get this sorted ASAP and strikers at this level cost unless you're lucky enough to unearth a Ryan Rowe.

If I recall correctly we've improved our league performance year on year over the past few years since getting back into the Southern League, so while we may have had some frustrating performances around the turn of the year I'd hardly say " stalling until February" was a fair comment.

Mackey was always going to follow the cash and I suspect most of us didn't expect to see him in a Stourbridge shirt again after being substituted in the play off semi final. Interesting that he's chosen another club at this level rather than having a go higher up the pyramid.

barnstoneworth wrote:If I recall correctly we've improved our league performance year on year over the past few years since getting back into the Southern League, so while we may have had some frustrating performances around the turn of the year I'd hardly say " stalling until February" was a fair comment.

So you believe if the management hadnt turned to a 'proper' 4-4-2 after the turn of the year, and hadnt signed Mackey, we would have finished second?

Because i certainly dont believe we would have.

brockmoor wrote:

barnstoneworth wrote:If I recall correctly we've improved our league performance year on year over the past few years since getting back into the Southern League, so while we may have had some frustrating performances around the turn of the year I'd hardly say " stalling until February" was a fair comment.

So you believe if the management hadnt turned to a 'proper' 4-4-2 after the turn of the year, and hadnt signed Mackey, we would have finished second?

Because i certainly dont believe we would have.

Not a prayer....we were average to say the least playing one up top.
I don't think we would even have made the playoffs had that formation continued.

Devil's Advocate wrote:Very,very disappointed with this news but Mackey is a non league mercenary,he'll alway's go where the Dollar is.

If someone offered you more money to do the same job at a different company, would you turn it down?

And didn't he used to play for Evesham

I believe that the formation change was more crucial than the player - yes I know it went hand in hand but if we can get another striker and play 2 up front then i think we will be fine!

Ou results between December 8th (Chippenham at home) and April 20th (Bashley at home) were played 23, won 18, drew 2, lost 3. Not all the performances were top-notch, and many were playing 4-5-1, or a "sort of" 4-4-2 with Billingham pushed up alongside Luke. Mackey only joined in March so I would suggest our improved form was down to more than just him or the formation, though I would have to agree that his presence made a difference - 8 wins from 8 after he joined doesn't lie!

I would say that returning to a settled line-up with players playing in the right positions from early December onwards was more of a factor in our success.

I haven't checked where we were in the table before Mackey joined but I think we were well up there and I certainly don't agree that we wouldn't have made the play-offs without him.

As another poster mentioned, Mackey guarantees 25-30 goals a season (barring injuries of course), he is arguably the best striker in this league. I believe he finished highest goalscorer last season?

Are we likely to get someone from a higher level? I doubt it.

Playing 4-5-1 (or a pretend 4-4-2)for around 5 months and we were hanging on to a play-off place.

Reverting to a 4-4-2 results started to pick up and the tide was turning. We then signed Mackey the picture was complete.

Fingers crossed we dont fall in to the same trap next season, just because we havent got two quality strikers.

Maybe we could break the bank for Dovey?