Goodbye Mr McKenzie*

In a season of curious occurrences, Leon McKenzie's brief Poppies career is certainly up there.  As with a considerable number of players released from the Cobblers, Leon trudged down the well-worn path to the Poppies to eke out a few more footballing paydays.

Despite being almost terminally injury prone he has managed to play a handful of games and grab a few goals.  He has perhaps wisely announced his retirement due to those continual injuries and brought down the curtain on his career with today's game with Bath.

"OOOF!"  How did you enjoy non-league Leon?

I don't want to be a party pooper.  Leon may well be a decent bloke, but the over-the-top reaction to the departure of a player with so few games for the Poppies has left me bemused.  We have had players who have sweat blood in a Poppies shirt for several years who have disappeared without so much as a mention.  Some great Poppies stars have been allowed to slip away without us having the chance to bid them farewell, and yet after less than half a season Leon managed to secure a Poppies testimonial.

OK, not an actual testimonial as such, but one might be forgiven for thinking this is what we witnessed this afternoon.  Captain for the day.  Comes on the pitch with his kids.  Takes the applause and ovation at the final whistle, and receives a guard of honour from his teammates.  In keeping with a testimonial, the game just drifted and bobbled along, and to be honest Leon should have been removed in favour of a front two of KHM and JD with a good half hour to go.  Stimson, I never realised you were such a softie!  Let's just hope Leon doesn't expect to bank the takings today too!  He'll come up against a bunch of belligerent Ladaks!

I hope Leon enjoyed his brief stint with us and has success in his future endeavours, even if his career with us didn't amount to more than the merest of footnotes in Poppies history.


* the other Goodbye Mr McKenzie were, of course, the ace Scot's rockers of the late '80's and early '90's = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F23SoNYjEwI