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Ex Files - Rickie Lambert
Ex Files - Rickie Lambert
Sunday, 19th Aug 2007 06:38

We've added one or two wrong 'uns to our Ex Files list recently. To make up for it, here's Rickie Lambert.

Player Profile: Rickie Lambert

Name Rickie Lambert
Position Striker / Attacking Midfielder
Date of Birth 16th February 1982
Born Liverpool
Height 6'2
Weight 12'01
Signed for Dale Stockport - 17.02.05
Fee £25,000
Debut Macclesfield 3 Dale 0 - 19.02.05
Other Clubs Blackpool
Macclesfield Town
Stockport County
Bristol Rovers
Left Spotland 31.08.06

Dale Stats (to July 2007)

  League Cup Total
Season App Sub Goals App Sub Goals App Sub Goals
2006-2007 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0
2005-2006 43 3 22 4 0 0 47 3 22
2004-2005 15 0 6 0 0 0 15 0 6
Total 61 3 28 4 0 0 65 3 28
Lambert was brought to Spotland by Steve Parkin in February 2005 as we looked to strengthen towards our late play off push that season. He came to the club from Stockport for a fee of £25,000.

His time at Stockport had pretty much been a disappointment despite earning the Player of the Season award whilst there. Joining a club who were already in freefall, he found it difficult to live up to the £300,000 fee that accompanied him.

After a quiet debut at his old club Macclesfield, he hit the ground running scoring six goals before the end of the season, including examples of was soon to become his trademark goal.

He formed an excellent partnership with Grant Holt, and for perhaps the first time in a long, long time, we could rightfully claim to have the best attacking pairing in the whole division and we were the envy of many a club for our attacking options.

It was Lambert's second and only full season with the club where he really came into his own. Playing in every single game - something of a rarity for strikers these days - he proved himself to be one of the most gifted strikers around, and it was very much deserved when he received the golden boot award for top scorer in the division for 2005-6.

And if the award took quality of goals into consideration, then he'd have been awarded the golden boot for the whole of Europe. Because, for a long while it seemed like Lambert was having his own personal goal of the season competition, such were the high standards of his efforts.

Set pieces seemed to be his speciality. He could ping a free kick into the back of the net from anywhere. It seemed like every single game, we'd get a free kick (and if truth be told, it was a tactic we used to play for) outside of the box. We knew where it was going, Lambert knew where it was going, and the keeper knew where it was going. And there was nothing he could do about it.

And then just for good measure, he showed he could vary them about by switching between top corners, and even firing them in low along the ground.

But it wasn't just free kicks. He could score superb goals from open play, such as his goal at Orient, and prove to be an excellent provider for his striker partner Grant Holt in the real goal of the season against Macclesfield in which Lambert just plucked the ball from head height and controlled it perfectly before playing Holt in.

He had a bit of a lean spell during the Winter months. Whether this was down to poor quality pitches, the absence of partner Grant Holt or the slump in form that we as a team suffered, we'll never know.

However, cometh the hour cometh the man and all that. As we slipped further and further down the table, Lambert pretty much became a one man force in ensuring that we stayed up. With nine goals from the last week in February onwards, he was the difference in many a game and had it not been for this late flourish, we could have been down amongst the likes of Halifax.

His third season lasted just three games and then he was off. With just one league goal for the entire season at the time, he was sold off on transfer deadline day to Bristol Rovers for £200,000. There was no doubting that in terms of getting a decent price for a striker who was soon to be out of contract, we had done well.

But it was a massive gamble, letting your best player go just when you need him the most. But as it happened, he went to Bristol Rovers, came back to Dale with Rovers, scored the all so predictable goal, took Rovers to the play offs and led them to a promotion and Johnstones' Paints Trophy double.

Which in itself earned Dale a further £25,000 for the season due to sell on clauses. But had that goal back in January been scored for us against Rovers and not the other way round, we'd have ended up above them in the table.....

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