You asked me why he's not Agar's type of player. I said Agar prefers a defence-led game; he'd always pick Yeaman over Hall in a straight choice. It's a fine line between having the ability to win games with natural attacking ability and putting your team on the back foot with errors. Agar, and the majority of Hull fans, on balance saw more of the latter than the former. This doesn't mean that Morgan can't develop his defensive game and eradicate the errors though, and, as said, it's the ideal test of Morgan's ability to develop a player with undoubted flair and ability.

Fair point

I think Agar knew that Hall had ability and gave him plenty of chances. In the end Agar ran out of patience which is understandable.



In these days of salary cap restrictions coaches are forced into these type of decisions.



Obviously I hope Craig Hall does well at Rovers so good luck to him.



I don't really see Morgan's task as making Hall good at things he has not been good at in the past. Morgan didn't sign Hall in the belief he could turn him into a tackling machine. No he signed him because of what he CAN do not what he can't. Hall will be given a few do's and don'ts to comply with but mainly I think he'll be asked to express himself and show his ability.



Hall's pace and his ability to ghost through gaps definitely add value for Rovers. We'll have to see if this outweighs any negatives. Either way he is not a top earner and he is not crucial to Rovers hopes for 2011.



Morgan knows this so there's really nothing to lose.

Fair points. At FC however, particularly in 2008 and 2009, Hall, who was a good fringe player who ended up playing a lot of games due to injuries to Tony, Byrne, Raynor, etc, and in those cases you [udo[/u have something to lose. If Rovers, say, lost Briscoe for the season tomorrow, and Cockayne for 3 months the week after, Hall would be an automatic pick somewhere in the backs, possibly fullback, facing the bombs of Danny Brough and being Rovers last line of defence trying to hold up the likes of Crabtree over the line. As I said, it was that sort of situation that did for him. In your ideal scenario of having a full strength squad to pick from every week, you're right, there's nothing to lose, but that's not necessarily the actual situation you find yourself in every week.

Nice to see my ranting last year about Hall needing to play left centre where is is comfortable was listened to by someone. Wish Agar had. I still firmly believe Hall is one that we shouldn't have allowed to go. Still, everyone needs a scapegoat when the chips are down.

I was saying it long before you Dave

Actually ,I will admit I might be the only Hull fan who appreciates Newton`s ability.(as a player.)

Your right about Cockayne though as far as I am concerned.

I have nothing against Hall,but I wouldn`t want him over Yeaman myself.

Played well, best of a bad bunch

he was 1 of only a few to have a go thats for sure

I thought Hall had a good 1st game yesterday.



One thing I was encouraged with was that he had the courage to repeat a play (quick flick pass to Fox) which went into touch the first time yet it didn't deter him the second time and it came off perfectly (despite Fox not making the most of it).



I was also encouraged by the fact that when that 1st pass went into touch, the East Stand never made a big deal out of it and it's little details such as this that will give the lad encouragement that he knows the fans really want him to succeed; for three significant reasons:-



1) The nostalgia and link to his old man.



2) He was an ex-FC player so we want him to succeed to use it as amo against FC fans (specifically fans like me).



3) He has all the potential to be an international centre if developed correctly.



So far so good anyway.

they didn't make a big deal out of it because it was the correct pass, foxy had read the play wrong and come in when he should have stayed out, if he had done he would have had a walk in try. Hall had a very encouraging debut rock solid on defense and promising in attack he should get a run of games now for me.