Pumped up for Saturday after this.



I loved watching Bally as you knew he ‘always’ gave 100% every game, inspired others around him to do the same, would never shirk a tackle and had this absolute desire to win

He may not have been the most gifted player, but he made up for that with everything mentioned above.

Mentioning Catts in the same thread and making comparisons is a joke to be honest (imho)
 
Roker Mackem said:
Define average? Average in World football? Probably. Average in England..no- above average. Average at Sunderland..absolutely not. First class in fact.
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He was a cracking captain and led from the centre of the park, I absolutely loved him; but let's not get above ourselves here, he was an average at best centre half and a clogged in midfield. People were desperate for him to be moved back into centre half when ready played him in the middle. People were wrong as Ordy and Mary were both better centre halves and Bally was a better midfield spoiler than he was a centre half anyway.

bryc1 said:
Was he fuck average man. He was made of granite Bally was and had the heart of a lion..
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He was committed Yes, and having him on the field benefited us, bu5 he was never one of the all time great players. He was a decent enough midfield spoiler who ran around a lot and threw himself into full blooded thunderous challenges. He us rightly remembered fondly, but he was never Roy Keane.

And he was never that good as a centre half.
 
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ReaL Madras said:
Kevin Ball is the player the hardmen of football feared.

Great bloke. He was a centre half and converted into the midfield, he had that "Roy Keane mad stare focus".
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i'm sure vinnie jones mentioned bally in his book, saying he was the hardest he played against.
jones just had a reputation and milked it for years although i do think he was an underrated footballer. i remember him running the show at roker when he played for sheffield utd.

kevin ball is like a lot of sunderland 'legends', not a world class footballer but gave his all every game.
look at januzaj last season, undoubtedly a more talented player but a heart like a pea.

fyl2u said:
Yeah, so what's your point? That's 3 teams that were all in the Premier League when he played for them (except this season), whereas Ball spent almost his whole career in the 2nd tier, barring 3 seasons where his sides got relegated back to the 2nd tier immediately with him playing regularly for them.
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you've missed off two promotions there and winners medals.
 
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fyl2u said:
Whereas Ball was in 3 relegation failures and in the second tier for the rest of his career. Cattermole has had the better career.
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Of course he has. He's averaged half a season, if he's lucky.

humbug said:
i'm sure vinnie jones mentioned bally in his book, saying he was the hardest he played against.
jones just had a reputation and milked it for years although i do think he was an underrated footballer. i remember him running the show at roker when he played for sheffield utd.

kevin ball is like a lot of sunderland 'legends', not a world class footballer but gave his all every game.
look at januzaj last season, undoubtedly a more talented player but a heart like a pea.



you've missed off two promotions there and winners medals.
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and an FA Cup final
 

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