Strong as an ox he played more than 50 times winning over the fans and the Northern Ireland manager
Posted in General on 15. Aug, 2010
Strong as an ox, he played more than 50 times, winning over the fans and the Northern Ireland manager, Bryan Hamilton. Cue an awesome performance against Germany.Now Taggart faces Germany and, in all probability, Klinsmann again “He’s the best striker I’ve played against,” he said. In his first season injury and suspension restricted him to 12 appearances as Bolton plummeted out of the Premiership. At the same time his international career came to a halt after a lacklustre performance against Latvia.”It was so frustrating,” he said “I wanted to make an impression and I was trying too hard It worked against me. “It fell right for me; it was there to be smacked.”Taggart, 26, was talking between tackling a doorstep of a sandwich at Bolton’s training ground near Chorley. A big man, he would command respect at a bouncers’ convention but, while it would have been a brave person to tell him to his face, it took him a long time to get the same from his own supporters.A pounds 1.5m signing from Barnsley two years ago, his career at Burnden Park virtually mirrored his new employers’. “I made it as big as I could,” the woman serving him said, past experience teaching her that he has the appetite to match his size.
The whole team played that well that night.”The goal? “Just a stroke of luck,” he said, smiling at the memory. They were hitting the bar, the post, Tommy Wright was making magnificent saves We were clearing off the line, all sorts. To complete a happy night for the Bolton central defender he got his sixth goal for his country.”It was like the Alamo,” Taggart said of a famous Irish night “The second half was unbelievable. You have to try and block those things out but it was a bit nerve-racking to tell the truth. I had a few butterflies that night.”Which suggests Taggart, who will meet the Germans again in Belfast tonight, should get nervous every match, because he was the cornerstone around which Northern Ireland built a wall of such obduracy that they slipped away with a 1- 1 draw.
“I hadn’t played for a year,” he said, “and what a game to come back to. The man he was marking might have been inexperienced, carrying an injury or past it In his dreams. The striker he had to subdue was Jurgen Klinsmann.
Germany in Nuremberg is no one’s idea of an ideal comeback and even the normally imperturbable Taggart was edgy. and you’ve just learnt you’re marking Ryan Giggs.”
Gerry Taggart could identify with the disconsolate defender.